Time Mage
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Pre-Epilogue Harry gets sent a book on his eighteenth birthday. This book was written by H.J. Potter, and is filled with information regarding a unique style of magic; Time Magic. The thing is, he hasn't written the book yet...
1. Phase 1

Title: Time Mage Harry Potter

Author: Joshua

Rated: M (Just to be on the safe side, mostly for Language and Adult Situations in later chapters)

Disclaimer: JK Rowling has Harry, and whoever else from the books show up in these plots. As for the Time Mage powers, they're drawn from multiple sources, too many to name, though some may be more recognizable than others, but suffice to say, if it has to do with 'control of time' of any sort, I'm gonna use it. I don't own either and I'm not making any money from all this, so don't bother suing me.

Summary: Harry gets sent a book on his eighteenth birthday. This book was written by H.J. Potter, and is filled with information regarding a unique style of magic; _Time_ Magic. The thing is, he hasn't written the book yet...

Time Mage: Origins

\- Phase One -

 _[August 11, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

It was Ginny's birthday. Her first since graduating Hogwarts, which she had finished only two and a half months ago. One she looked forward to celebrating with close friends and family. And her new husband, of twelve days and counting of course!

There had been some conversation about getting married right out of school, and even more conversations about how Harry wanted to make it easier to remember their Anniversary by having it on his own birthday rather than hers. Although to be fair she had gotten rather impatient at some point and just went with the earlier date.

The honeymoon was worth every knut, and Ginny strongly suspected that she could be expecting their first child in nine months, but she wasn't about to 'cry wolf' until she'd gotten herself checked out by a Healer. Still, as amazing as it would be to be a mother, she and Harry, Mister Chosen One, aka the Man-Who-Vanquished, aka Slayer-Of-He-Who-Still-Must-Not-Be-Named, and a few other more official titles, including Lord Potter, were _very_ happily married and enjoying it just being the two of them for now. What was interesting about being 'Lord Potter' was that while the title was inherited, as far as anyone could recall, the Potters had never been one of those 'Most Ancient And Noble' families like the Blacks were. And yet, there was no denying the fact that he was now a Lord and one of the Nobility.

Harry didn't really care about that, except that notification of the title came the day after his wedding/birthday and in addition to the letter announcement it came with a rather unique book. At first he would have foisted it off to his best friend, who was still in the 'dating phase' with his other best friend, but something about the book made him hang onto it. Might have had something to do with the author's name on the spine; H.J. Potter. Didn't mean it was written by him, just perhaps somebody with his same initials. He strongly suspected that if he didn't have a newlywed wife wearing very little in terms of clothing, he probably would have dropped everything to read the book and wouldn't have stopped until he'd finished.

He later confirmed this after the honeymoon was over and they moved into the new home he'd bought for them to raise their family in. The moment he'd opened the cover to the first page and read what it was about, he was hooked. After all, he still had so few connections to his family that every scrap of it was worth any amount to him. Fortunately it didn't take him long at all to get through it all. Just three days. Three days during which Ginny was 'thoroughly distracted' while he was supposed to be planning her surprise party. What a surprise indeed.

 _[August 11, 2099]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

Ginny was dead.

She… she'd been killed, she was killed…

Harry didn't understand what had happened. One moment, he'd been scrambling to get everything in the house ready, magic was awesome like that but it still had limits, and then Ginny and all the guests arrived, the party started and was underway and everyone was having an amazing time, and the moment after that… some… masked warlock showed up, stepping out of a portal in the open air, and he… he… he…

He'd taken Mrs. Potter hostage, holding her by the neck against his body, keeping the rest back by holding a knife to her throat with one hand, and a solid black metallic wand trained on the rest of the party guests. Harry had been at the front of that line, restrained only by the fact that the woman he loved was still alive and nothing else. The same portal the masked warlock manifested from appeared behind him and with no words being said, he slowly dragged Ginny through it. Harry didn't hesitate and before her feet were swallowed up, he dove after them through the portal.

Unlike most magical transportation this time he didn't find himself feeling sick or queasy, neither during nor after. It was just like going through the portal at Kings Cross Station, one step through and you find yourself someplace else, like stepping through an open doorway. Although, he still found himself on the ground, but that is what you get when diving headfirst through 'an open doorway' without looking where you leap.

The place where he found himself was very different from where he had started. It was a rundown very old building, the garden untended and growing wild, and the countryside was likewise abandoned, though there were signs that civilization had once been there. It wasn't until he stepped outside and saw the broken water wheel and the curving stream that he realized it was his home, Potter's Mill!

This revelation, of apparently being in his home years after he'd either died or abandoned the place, was overshadowed by the fact that the masked warlock still held his wife at knife-point and before any words could be said by either party, the masked figure slit the petite redhead's throat. Arterial spray stained the ground and she bled out in seconds. Harry screamed and charged wand firing curses, one of them a distinctive shade of green, but the warlock vanished through yet another portal, leaving the man alone with his dead wife's body.

It was hours later, after cradling the slowly stiffening corpse in his arms as he cried, that he remembered the book he'd just spent the past few days reading. It was a book detailing the forgotten and almost but not quite forbidden study of _Time Magic_. And not just casting a spell to see what time it was, although that was certainly covered, it went further than that. It had read of rituals, spells, artifacts and powers that could allow a person to not only travel through time, into the past and future, but to control the ebb and flow of time. Of ways to _change_ time!

Decision made, without even daring to speak it aloud, he kissed his dead wife's cool lips one last time and then went into the crap shack his once beautiful home had become and began searching for the spot where he'd hidden the book. Not surprising, it was exactly where he'd left it.

It took him another day to find the ritual that would allow him to open a portal, the same portal the masked warlock had used incidentally, and the remainder of that night to have it ready to use by dawn. He returned with Ginny's body in his arms to the moment they left. The book warned that, unless properly warded or otherwise protected, matter from two different points in time cannot coexist in the same space/time continuum. This counted for people and for objects in equal measure. The book warned that the _best case scenario_ if something like that were to happen would be that both sources of matter would mutually destroy one another. They'd both blow up.

Not wanting to risk his one chance at getting his wife back, Harry left the book back in the future, intending on studying the one in the 'present' to the best of his ability, no matter how long it took him, until he could go back and save Ginny from her murderer.

 _[August 31, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

He was ready. Finally. It took him the better part of the month, but doing nothing but studying that book, even to the point of ignoring all his friends, and missing the funeral that he hoped would soon never have happened, made it all worthwhile. When properly motivated, as when he was thirteen with learning the Patronus Charm after having faced Dementors on multiple occasions, he could learn just about anything—no matter how difficult—very quickly.

He'd begun by memorizing the book's contents in its entirety, at least as well as Hermione had no doubt memorized all of her text books back in the day. Then he'd started to experiment and test himself. He took the warnings to heart, not willing to risk with Ginny's life in the balance, and worked from the easiest and least dangerous spells and rituals and wards and potions and… suffice it to say Time Magic covered the whole curriculum of what had been covered at Hogwarts, and then some.

Fortunately, one of the early moderate level skills he'd learned from it was a way to create 'stable' time loops; where time keeps looping back in on itself for one or two people without affecting the surrounding space. The Time Turner effect without creating another 'him' in other words. It gave him more study time and a way of safely experimenting without having the Ministry of Magic coming down on him for illegal magic use. Considering he was looking at changing history, he had no doubt that they would absolutely view it as illegal!

He had also successfully completed every one of the rituals required to grant him innate magical protections and skills related to using time magic. It wasn't easy, for one there were warnings about potentially needing two or more people participating along with the 'target' of the ritual, but thankfully there were notes' hinting that it was because the average witch or wizard doesn't have enough innate magic to complete one. As it turns out; he was one of those who _did_.

His past was now 'Time Locked'. It happened, it always happened, it always will happen, and it is even happening now in _exactly_ the same way he remembered it happening, and if anyone or anything were to try and change any part of his past, leading up to him receiving the book, all of space and time would become forfeit. Not even Voldemort was that stupid. Hell, not even the stupidest entity * _EVER_ _*_ was that stupid!

He'd also made the ward that allowed him to 'coexist' with past and future versions of himself permanent, as well as half a dozen others that allowed him to survive in different timelines despite whatever difference there may be in the atmosphere and environment, communicate flawlessly as though he were a native speaker no matter what culture he came across, allowed him to 'detect' nearby instances of time travel or time manipulation being done in the same way his intruder detection wards worked, keep him from being tracked or followed through time via any magical means, identify the differences between natural, artificial, or magical time manipulations, and the most important one by far, a ward to identify when a paradox or Rewrite was in effect. And those were just the basic ones that it was advised needed to be in place before even considering traveling through time in the first place!

As far as actual time traveling spells and abilities he'd taken to mastering, aside from the little time turner trick, he'd also learned how to stop time, how to 'fold' Space/Time in a way that was _so_ much more comfortable to use than Apparating, and most importantly he'd mastered three, yes _*three*_ different ways of traveling through time. One was the same 'folding', only through time rather than just space. The other—the first he'd actually learned—was to create Time Portals like the masked warlock had done. And the third and final way, which had taken him the longest to master, but was essential if he wanted to succeed in saving Ginny and changing history, was a _Penteract_.

Basically, he had to combine all the theories the book told him about, separate them into identifying every aspect of what exactly his magic was going to be doing, and then take that understanding of different and opposing facts and bring them back together. It made him wish he'd actually taken Arithmancy in school, as he was getting an amateur refresher course now. Fortunately, Ginny _had_ taken Arithmancy rather than Divination or Ancient Runes, so he could borrow her old school books while giving himself a 'one day' education in order to perfect his Penteract spell as soon as possible. Of course calling it a spell was like calling Quidditch 'flying a broom'. The words themselves were only a very small part of what went into making the Penteract work.

But get it to work he did, and the moment after he'd succeeded in going back to the future Potter's Mill and back again, several times, and proving that he could in fact change the past and future because of it, he started making plans. He would go back to the point Ginny had been kidnapped, just before it in fact, and stop the masked warlock from even appearing. Oh, yeah, he'd also learned exactly how to _prevent_ time portals from opening up too.

Final preparations made, he caressed the two-dimensional cheek of Ginny from their wedding day portrait. She, the image in the painting, smiled sadly and made as though she could feel his touch. The him in the portrait just smiled grimly and nodded, holding the redhead in white a little closer in his arms.

"See you soon, Gin-Gin," he whispered and focused his mind and magic on establishing the Penteract. He cast the spell and from his wand a single point of pure white light emerged and started moving in an exact pattern around him. This continued until there were eight such points moving around him, depicting a cube moving on its axis. Then more lights, until he was surrounded by what mathematicians would call a Tesseract, all of it still moving in harmony, a cube cubed. It continued until there were _three_ Tesseracts moving with him at the exact center.

All during this, Harry had kept his eyes shut and his mind absolutely focused upon his goal. The combined light from so many moving points made it very bright, so that was undoubtedly a good thing. Suddenly, he felt everything come together and his eyes snapped open, at the very same moment all the points rushed in on him and collapsed into a single point, taking him with him, disappearing from that point in space and time in a blinding flash of light.

-END Phase One-


	2. Phase 2

\- Phase Two -

 _[August 11, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

Harry appeared just outside his home in a flash of light. He immediately fell to the ground, his equilibrium shot to hell. It wasn't as…wild a ride as a Portkey or the Floo, and not the same kind of discomfort as Apparition was, but feeling your molecules stretched in thousands of different directions all at once before basically feel them blow up like supernovas and then crushed back together with the force of creation itself and watching the universe be born, expand, shrink, die, and reverse itself three times before 'falling' toward one single point within it… well it was a discomfort all its own.

Once he'd successfully quelled the urge to regurgitate everything he'd ever eaten, and perhaps most of his digestive tract along with it, he slowly climbed to his feet and looked around. It was his house all right, practically the same as he'd left it. Except… There was a car in the drive-way. A car that he'd personally blown up during one of his many experiments and practices in Time Magic!

There were also a set of brooms that did _not_ belong to him, leaning up against the back wall. They actually belonged to a few of his neighbors and family through marriage. The only time they'd all been here at once was…

Harry smiled brightly. It had worked!

He wanted to jump up and down shouting for joy! Instead, he pulled out his Family Cloak, silenced his footsteps and started casting the detection spell for any time disturbances in the area. He was only detecting the trace amounts left from his arrival at the moment, so he knew he wasn't too late. Making his way to the front window, he silently observed the party play out just as he remembered.

"SURPRISE!"

"Harry! Oh my god, it is perfect!" Ginny screamed amidst the cheers of all their friends and family applauding her arrival.

The invisible Harry from the future smiled nostalgically at the scene, briefly allowing himself to get lost in memories and feelings. The present-day Harry, who looked like he'd spent the last three days without sleep and staring too hard at an open book in poor lighting, just enjoyed the embrace he'd earned from his wife for having the place ready for the party in time, if only just.

The reminder of how he'd gotten into such a condition pulled him out of his funk and back on mission. He was here to stop his wife from being murdered in front of his eyes, he had to be on guard. Or as his old teacher used to say, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

As the invisible Harry began erecting the wards to prevent time portals from forming, the Harry embracing Ginny finally let her go and allowed her to make the rounds with all her friends and party guests. Hermione Granger, his best friend, who was still 'only dating' his other best friend, Ron Weasley, walked up to him and made the comment, "You look like hell, Harry."

"You would know," he returned, keeping the smile on his face. "You've been in this same condition for the exact same reason before."

"Oh, and what undeniable project has you so involved?" she asked, curious.

Before he could answer, Ginny called her husband over to her side, "Harry! Come say hello to Luna and her date! Luna, it has been so long. How was… I'm sorry, where've you been lately?"

"Sorry Mione, the redhead beckons," the tired wizard said, kissing the brunette's cheek and walking away. He didn't look back, and thus did not see the look of frustrated jealousy cross her face. But the invisible Harry on the fringe of the party did. That look confused him, but he had more important things to worry about for the moment.

He'd just finished placing the artifacts in the proper configuration around the property, now came the complicated part; raising the wards without alerting his younger/other self to what was going on. Sure, he was more experienced and actually knew what he was doing, but the younger had read the book and whether practiced or not, he had the knowledge of time magic now. He had to be careful, lest he wreck his own plans to save Ginny.

Harry started casting, raising the wards one piece at a time, so to speak, and then waiting until they were fully charged before bringing up the next and then the next, until the wards against time portals was fully up and powered with no one the wiser. Unfortunately, he was quite sure that whoever was behind his wife's murder was not going to give up so easily, so he kept his cloak up and patrolled around the fringes of the party, keeping an eye out.

As it turned out, it gave him a unique opportunity of experiencing an entirely different perspective of the party that had started out as one of the best, before turning into the worst experience of his life. He lurked around, invisible, listening in on and observing various conversations that he'd never been a part of or in position to hear before. It was quite… informative.

"So, I hear Potter is expecting," he heard a voice saying. A very familiar voice.

Turning, listening in unseen, Harry overheard a conversation between Dean Thomas and Patrick Sturgeon, coworkers of his from the Aurors.

"I used to date her, y'know," Dean commented.

"Everybody _used_ to date her, from what I hear," Patrick laughed. "Nobody, 'cept Potter, ever got anywhere with her though."

"We snogged," Dean hissed, defending his 'reputation'.

"She ever let you get anywhere though? Word is, from _my_ wife you understand, not even Potter got anything more than kisses until they were married. Hard to believe, eh? Hero of the age, and he didn't even get any freebies from his girlfriend! Ha!"

Harry wasn't sure how to react to that, though surprise seemed to be the strongest emotion at the moment. Sturgeon's wife was a known gossip, almost as bad as his Aunt Petunia had been, just with more reliable sources. Chances were good that anything she heard and 'passed on' was closer to the truth than anything printed in the Daily Prophet, and certainly more believable than anything in the Quibbler.

Moving on, he caught a few other conversations, mostly about Ginny and how lucky the two of them were, Harry for having a beautiful wife, and Ginny for having 'snagged' the 'Hero of the age' aka Man Who Won formerly the Boy Who Lived. There were a few snippets that fell outside of this box, and those he paid particular attention to.

"Cho, stop this, it isn't good for you," Marietta begged her old school friend. Harry hadn't even known they'd been invited, let alone that they'd been here at the party.

"Shut up!" Cho slurred. "I… it could've been me, that could've been me, but I… I messed up."

"You went on one date with the wanker!" Marietta fumed. "And it took me _years_ to repair what that _mudblood_ friend of his did to me! You're better off without. Besides, everybody knows Weasley is just a gold-digger. Look at her family, they're pisspoor. Potter probably took pity on her and took her in as his whore."

"Stop trying to cheer me up, Mari, t's not workin," Cho slurred, taking a final swig of what he suspected was a bottle of rather strong alcohol.

"I'm serious," Marietta hissed, though even Harry could see that she was more concerned about her drunk friend than bitching about the birthday girl.

"Somebody should show Harry just what he's missing out on," Cho mumbled, stumbling off with Marietta close behind.

"Funny," Harry mused quietly to himself, "She never showed up after Ginny died. Not that I would have given her the chance to really do anything. Guess she was all talk."

Another interesting tidbit was actually part of a conversation he vaguely remembered, but hadn't heard the entirety of the first time around.

Ron, Hermione and George were huddled near the punch bowl. Originally, he'd stopped by to get some refreshment for himself and Ginny, and contributed a bit about the next 'investment meeting' for WWW and promised to drop by and help out a bit when he got the time. At least, that is all that he remembered about it…

"So, did he get the package?" George asked, taking a sip of punch. Only, Harry observed from close-up, his lips were dry when the cup was pulled away.

"I don't know, I haven't been able to confirm it," Hermione admitted, biting her lip.

"Does it matter if he already has it or not?" Ron asked. "We all know that he gets it. What could we even do if he did or didn't already have it, eh?"

"It matters, Ronald," Hermione lectured her husband, an all too familiar sight, except the subject was highly unusual, "because if he already has it, but does not yet know what it is, there is a chance that I might-that we might be able to 'borrow' it and use it for the greater good."

This is the point at which Harry remembered entering the conversation.

"There is no greater good than a good prank, in my humble opinion, my dear sister-in-law," George said with a wide grin.

"Oh, you and your pranks!" Hermione said in an outraged tone, completely opposite from what it had been moments beforehand.

"So how are things going at the shop?" past-Harry asked.

"Couldn't be better, Harry," George replied enthusiastically. "Business is booming!"

"Literally," Ron added with a smirk.

"So I hear," he said. "Considering that I keep getting sent down on calls about noise complaints and fireworks going off in the middle of the city where no fireworks are ever supposed to be set off. I'll have to bring this up at the next 'investment meeting' George. Especially if I'm not invited along next time. I'll be sure you get the memo." They all laughed.

"Speaking of which, Harry," Hermione directed the conversation back toward him. "Have you received anything special recently?"

Future-Harry did a double-take while his past self teased his friend at the misinterpreted double-entendre.

"Well, as a matter of fact I have, Hermione. On my birthday even, but I didn't think you would be the one to care for such things," Harry teased her.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm-" he cut her off before she could fully commit to the confusion of the moment.

"After all, what a man and his wife do behind closed doors, while perfectly normal, isn't the type of thing one converses about in casual company. Especially if that company includes the brothers of said wife," Harry grinned and took a long sip of his drink, enjoying how close to his wife's hair color Hermione's face was getting.

"-not interested in the least about that sort of thing!" she hastily corrected herself.

"I'll talk to you later," the happily married wizard said with a smirk. "Once you've got your blood pressure back under control that is. Enjoy the party! Ginny loves that you came!"

They waved silently as Harry's past self walked away.

"Does he suspect?" Ron asked his girlfriend/wife.

"No, he's just naturally that oblivious," Hermione grumbled with a sigh. "And he's in love. It makes everybody blind and stupid."

"You lot do know that love potions don't work like that, right?" George commented.

"Unfortunately, I've had first hand experience about how love potions work," Ron shot his brother an angry glare, recalling a certain potion that had been part of 3W's product line since his 6th Year at Hogwarts.

"Besides, Ginny doesn't need a potion," Hermione offered with a saucy smirk of her own.

"Bah! Gah! No!" Ron shook his head.

"La la la la la la!" George stuck his fingers in his ears and started blocking out other noise, specifically anything Hermione was saying about his sister's sex life.

"Boys!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

Harry stared at them, suspicious, but the subject was changed again and never seemed to go back to what they wanted to know about him having, or not having something. It was… confusing, and somewhat concerning. They couldn't be talking about the book of Time Magic… could they?

Moving on before he could drive himself mad with suspicion or paranoia, he sought out his wife in the crowded party, intending on staying with her and as close as possible in order to keep her safe. Yes, he'd erected wards that should protect her from the one that had actually taken her, but he doubted very much that whoever was behind the attack would actually give up just because they couldn't use a time portal all of a sudden. So he needed to stick to her like glue, to protect her.

He briefly lost her after she'd had some of the punch spilled on her dress, and she begged off to go inside and wash up. He recalled that his past self would go inside with her and 'guard' anybody from disturbing her. It was odd though. While the oblivious couple were inside the home, the observant time traveller was outside, continuing to patrol the party for any and all threats. What was so odd, however, was that he saw Ginny come around to the back yard to the party from the garage rather than from inside the house. Also, she was wearing a completely different outfit, one that she typically wore to and from work, not for a party.

Thinking back, all he could remember was that while 'guarding' his wife, she told him to go run a couple errands, making sure the refreshments were fully stocked and things like that, and finally she ordered him to get back to it and that she'd rejoin him when she finally got everything situated. At the time, he'd thought nothing of her change of dress, blaming it on her just throwing on the first thing she had laying around. He was rather pleased at her renewed enthusiasm regarding the party.

Observing everything from the outside, now, it was more confusing rather than endearing.

"Harry! Oh my god, it is perfect!" Ginny screamed between enthusiastic kisses to her husband's face.

"Glad that you're enjoying your party, Love," he remarked and kissed her right back. "Refreshments are fully stocked, as ordered. Everyone has had time to hobnob and stob their gobs, so how about we move right along to the main event, eh? Time to open presents, everybody!"

Cheers went up all around, but the future Harry was close enough now to hear his past wife say, "I can't believe you did all this! I just wish I could've gotten here at the start and enjoyed it more!"

The younger, past Harry hadn't properly heard her and was too busy herding the crowd toward the presents area, but the older future Harry heard the statement just fine and it struck a chord within him, though he couldn't say exactly what or why. As it was, he stayed rooted to the spot as the happy couple moved on toward the presents table.

All of a sudden everything seemed to be moving in a kind of fast forward. Not that time actually sped up, but rather from having experienced this part of the party before, he subconsciously felt that events were beginning to happen very quickly despite the exact same amount of time passing as before. Kind of like the difference of watching a movie for the first time, and watching it for the hundredth time.

"May I have everyone's attention please!" Harry called out, clinking a random utensil against his crystal glass. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and conversations ceased as they all turned toward their host. "Thank you for attending this momentous occasion, the celebration of the birth of a beautiful and, dare I say it, magical woman. The love of my life, my friend, my companion, my wife; Ginevra Potter!"

There was a round of applause as the crowd gathered closer together, which had the unfortunate effect of keeping Harry from moving between them without raising suspicion. The last thing he wanted was a 'duel' with his past self, especially when his goal was to protect the person they both loved, as his past self was lamenting at the moment.

"Ginny," Harry said, turning to the woman at his side, "I truly cannot imagine what my life might be like without you in it. We may not have had 'love at first sight', or been drawn together through conflict, like some others." The crowd laughed as many eyes turned toward one in particular of Ginny's brothers and his brunette girlfriend/future wife. "But you have always stayed at my side and been a haven and pillar of support whenever I needed it. So forgive me for stealing the spotlight for but a moment, but I just had to say it for everyone to hear. I celebrate this day not because you are my wife or because you are my friend. I celebrate this day, the day of your birth, because of exactly that. This world, my world, my whole existence is _better_ , is _worth living_ because you are in it. Because you were born."

Suddenly, Harry realized that this was it! This was the moment the portal opened and Ginny was killed! He needed to get to her and he needed to get to her _NOW_!

He employed every trick, every easy and fast use spell that he'd learned to give him an advantage, from stopping time (keep people from noticing him), accelerating his personal clock (giving him super speed), and manipulating time of the matter around him (letting him create 'steps' of 'solid air' and the like to get over obstacles), as he raced to get to Ginny's side. Unfortunately, despite all his tricks, all the spells, and everything else, the wards especially, he was still too late.

"And so, with that having been said, I want to…" Harry was cut off as the portal began to open directly behind the woman he was speaking to. It started only as a spark of magic, but then it slowly spiraled larger, moving in a clockwise motion, exponentially increasing until it was seven feet across, a perfect circle.

Harry was still feet away as the masked man stepped out from the time portal.

It all happened at seemingly different speeds. All time magics aside, to the Harry racing at top speed under an Invisibility Cloak, everything (himself included) was moving in slow motion, and yet things were happening very quickly and he just couldn't react fast enough to keep up with it! To the Harry that this was happening to for the first time, he was surprised and that moment of indecision cost him as the masked man grabbed the redhead and started to drag her back through the portal before either Harry Potter could actually do anything about it.

The Time Travelling Harry, however, was not frozen in surprise and indecision, and so he actually managed to make it to the pair right as they were entering the time portal, tackling them as they fell through it, desperately struggling to free his wife from the kidnapper's grasp. They came out the other side and Harry wasted no time in kicking the masked man away and holding onto Ginny with all his might, pulling her beneath his Invisibility Cloak as soon as he could.

"Harry!" she gasped, "What are you doing? What is going on?"

"Shh," he cautioned, already moving them away from man that had just kidnapped his wife. He tried to explain as quietly as he could, hoping to remain undetected for as long as possible. "It's a bit of a long story. Short answer, that man that just kidnapped you wants to kill you, I'm here to save you, oh and we're a few hundred years in the… future?"

He stopped and actually looked at their surroundings, initially to find a place to hide, and then to see that they were _not_ in fact in the future dilapidated and rundown version of their home. Furthermore, the time portal they had come through had closed, _without the younger Harry following_!

 _That_ was not supposed to happen! And even if the portal had been keyed to the number of people going through it, then it should have been keyed to the kidnapper and Ginny and no one else. Originally, he'd only been a second, at most, behind Ginny and her kidnapper in following them through the portal, and this time he'd basically gone through _with_ them. Did a second really make that much of a difference? If it did, then that could explain a few discrepancies he'd gone over in his memories of Ginny's murder, discrepancies that he'd been too grief-stricken to properly analyze at the time. So… what was going on?

"SALAZAR!" a voice shouted. "You've gone too far this time, Salazar!"

"What was that?" she asked, also keeping her voice quiet, sensing the seriousness of the situation.

"... I'm not sure," he carefully admitted.

"Too far, Godric? HAH! I have not even started! What are you going to do about it, Gryffindor?" another voice shouted, sounding somewhat familiar to both Harry and Ginny.

The answer to most of their questions was quick in coming as they came out of the forest into a farm clearing and came face to face with Salazar Slytherin. Who just so happened to look just like a forty-year-old, non-Voldemort-yet version of Tom Marvolo Riddle with disturbingly familiar green eyes. Meanwhile, standing across from him was Godric Gryffindor, who just so happened to look remarkably like William "Bill" Weasley, but also in his forties, with dark brown rather than red hair, and blue/grey eyes instead of brown eyes.

"Did you know you were related to Gryffindor?" Harry whispered to his wife as they huddled beneath his Invisibility Cloak. She silently shook her head, her eyes wide.

What soon followed was the quote/unquote "legendary" duel between Gryffindor and Slytherin, set to the backdrop of… a pig farm?

"This is not how I imagined… _this_ … going," Harry quietly admitted, even as he noticed two women racing down from Hogwarts castle, a group of younger witches and wizards struggling along behind them.

"Aw, we missed the beginning," someone said from right behind the invisible pair. "I've always been curious as to what, exactly, it was that started this particular duel."

Turning, they saw the man in the mask, leaning casually against the nearest tree. The killer of Harry Potter's wife then raised a wand and made a simple swipe with it… and everything around them froze. Harry tensed and held his wife closer, having recognized the spell used... and what it meant. What was going on here?

"You're probably wondering what is going on?" a far-too-familiar voice said from the direction of the masked man. Harry and Ginny froze beneath the Invisibility Cloak. Turning, they stared unseen as the man stood up and removed his mask.

Harry James Potter, identical in every way to the one beneath the Invisibility Cloak, stood there, mask in hand. Harry tore the Cloak off of himself and his wife, though he was mindful to keep Ginny behind him in order to protect her, as he turned and faced this alternate version of himself.

"How?" was the first question out of his mouth, followed a heartbeat later with a rage-filled cry of, " _Why_?!"

"For starters," he answered, removing the costume he'd worn with the mask, "I'm a _bit_ more experienced than you are when it comes to Time Magic. I also remember exactly what you did when I was you, and that helped in finding the holes in the wards to set up the portal network. Now, for the difficult question. It's complicated."

"Then _un_ complicate it! Fast!" he demanded.

"Harry!" Ginny called. Then she realized the paradox of her call, and made a physical motion to grab the closest one by the arm, saying again, "Harry!"

"Tell me what is going on!" she demanded once she was sure she had his attention. "He said something about Time Magic. Is that what this is? A Time Turner?"

"Not… exactly," he hesitated in saying.

"Remember this?" the other Harry held up the tome of Time Magic.

"How did you get that?!" Harry snarled.

"It's mine," he shrugged. "Same as the one in your pocket over there. Same as the one that Ginny saw me get on my birthday. Same one that you just spent the past, or would it be future, few weeks memorizing, cover to cover."

"What is that book, Harry?" Ginny quietly demanded to know.

"It's a book on time magic," he answered.

"Written by myself," the other Harry quickly added.

"Just because the author had my same initials…!" Harry argued.

"What part of it being a book on _time_ magic was not understood?" he argued back. "This isn't an instruction manual or a textbook from school! It's our damn diary!"

Harry blinked in surprise. "Our?" he repeated.

"It is the diary of the Time Mage, Harry James Potter," he stated. "Every spell and ritual and trick that you read about in here, gets invented, developed, and figured out by me first. Then I write it all down and send it back to my past self on my nineteenth birthday so that I can have it fully mastered by the time I'm twenty-one, when I write the book."

"Fine," Harry growled, holding Ginny protectively close. "That explains how. Now _why kill Ginny just to get me here_?!" he screamed.

"What?" the redhead in his arms paled dramatically.

"..." The other Harry was silent, putting his book away and looking at them soberly. Finally he spoke after a hefty silence. "I don't know the true reason. Yet. But I understand why it has to happen in the first place. For one, name anything else that would get you to have reached the level of power in time magic that you have, and we'll do that instead."

Harry blinked, stunned. He… _he_ killed Ginny, all so he could learn and master what was in that damned book faster?! This was insane.

"It's not insane, it's temporal mechanics," the other Harry said out of the blue, seemingly reading his mind. When, Harry realized, in actual fact he was just remembering what he'd been thinking at this time. "Only way that I could learn and master as much as I did, as quickly as I did, is if I had sufficient motivation to do so. Only person that means as much to me is Ginny. And if it were Hermione, or Ron, I'd probably try to involve one or the other with the learning, which would slow me down. Had to be Ginny."

"So… are you going to kill me, Harry?" she asked, a steel quality in her voice.

He shrugged and grinned mischievously at her. "Sort of. It's called a Time Clone. Basically, I take the you that dies in the timeline and I bring that 'event' into the current timeline, even while taking steps to make sure that such an event could never occur in the true timeline. It is only possible for a Time Mage."

"I… never read about anything like that in the book," Harry accused. "And for that matter, how do we even know that anything you've told us is the truth? You could just as easily be somebody with Polyjuice potion! And where the bloody hell are we?!"

"Already figured out the 'when' part, huh?" the experienced Time Mage chuckled. "This is Hogsmeade, or what will one day _be_ Hogsmeade."

"It's a pig farm in the middle of the forest," Ginny pointed out.

"Trust me, it's Hogsmeade," he quickly assured them. "Guess when."

"August 12, 899 AD, eleven thirty two in the morning," Harry recited. "What about it?"

"Aside from it being a few hundred years to Ginny's birthday, it also happens to be the date of a very significant event for our world," he replied, gesturing to the frozen scene now behind them.

"Why bring us here? To this?" Harry asked, still hanging tight to Ginny. "The first time I went through that damned portal of yours, I found myself some two hundred years in the future just outside of our home, at Potters Mill. What is the point?"

"And yet, it never occurred to you to ask why that place had been abandoned?" the future version asked his past self. Harry just frowned and refused to answer.

"Of course it did," the future-Harry answered for him with a sigh. "I know because it occurred to me plenty as I sat in that dusty husk of a home while I studied and practiced. Why was it abandoned? Why wasn't there signs of life or children or even having been sold to somebody else? If it was simply a matter of changing the past, then the moment that I decided to save Ginny everything should've changed. And since it didn't, did that mean that I would fail to save her?"

Harry refused to acknowledge the questions he'd asked himself over and over again during his self-study, except maybe by clenching his jaw and fists.

"The answer to that is, believe it or not, the answer to your questions right there," he explained. "Or at least… that's how it was explained to me. I'm still trying to get those answers…"

"Then why go through with this if there is no point?!" Harry argued with himself.

"... You really weren't paying attention when I told you that I'd set up a portal _network_ , did you?" his future-self mischievously remarked with a cock-eyed smirk.

"What do you mean?" the younger asked, only to have the answer made evident as yet another time portal opened up right beneath the three of them, each standing within seven feet of each other, after which they fell through and into a new time and place. With the time mages gone, time, and the duel between Slytherin and Gryffindor resumed as though nothing had happened.

[ _August 12 1981_ ]

 _The Burrow_

 _Ottery St. Catchpole_

 _England_

Harry fell flat on his back, thankfully just managing to avoid bumping his head upon landing. Unfortunately, he was quick to notice Ginny's absence, but slow to recognize his surroundings, or the fact that he'd been cursed. To be specific, he'd been silenced and found that out only after he'd tried shouting for his wife. Standing up and getting to his feet, he tried to find out where he was and where the others that had fallen through the portal with him had ended up. He couldn't see anybody (except some garden gnomes sneaking in through the holes in the fence) and while he did recognize the Burrow, and knew the exact date and time thanks to his time magic, he failed to understand what was going on.

Until a loud female scream pierced the night, sounding to be in absolute agony.

"Ginny!" he mouthed, still unable to make a sound and too distraught to try removing the Silencing Curse placed upon him. He ran toward the Burrow, fully intending on charging in and rescuing his wife. Before he made it three feet, he was thrown to the ground yet again, this time by a tripping jinx. Getting back to his feet, he saw his quarry, once again wearing the mask and costume, and holding Ginny in a disturbingly familiar manner, positioned on the roof of the mishmashed building. He tensed, ready to unleash the fury of all of time and space if 'history' repeated itself before his eyes.

Fortunately, rather than kill her or cause the young witch any harm, the masked time mage merely opened up another portal and dragged the redhead through with him, leaving Harry alone on the ground. He rushed forward once more, intent on getting to the roof and following them by reopening the time portal.

Three steps from the front door, he recognized the screaming as that of Molly Weasley, his mother-in-law, but also the panicked voices of her husband Arthur Weasley, and their boys. What troubled him, and actually succeeded in halting his steps was that he could distinctly hear _five_ separate voices. Young voices. _Boys_ voices. And a baby's cries…

Caution, and the _numerous_ and _extremely thorough_ warnings that came with his source of time magic learning, forced Harry to abandon his current course of action and draw his Invisibility Cloak over himself again. Then he snuck around to the side of the house he could hear the screams coming from and peaked (invisibly) in the window.

Molly was pregnant… and in the middle of labour, by all appearances. Thankfully he couldn't see… anything, but one does not mistake a pregnant redhead with a temper problem giving birth, while her husband struggled to free his hand from her cast-iron grip. A small part of Harry, which was still hopeful about the future, silently prayed that Ginny would have an easier time of being pregnant and giving birth. Although, judging by the amount of swearing and screaming coming from the (six times) experienced mother inside, he didn't hold out much hope for it.

Suddenly, his thoughts and the night were pierced by a very different cry, that of a birthing baby's first cries upon leaving the womb. Harry watched, stunned and in awe as he witnessed the birth of the woman he loved and had married. He witnessed the scene as Molly slowly recovered from her labor and held her daughter in her arms for the first time and named her "Ginevra Molly Weasley" and then rested together in the makeshift bed, even as Arthur and the local Healer went about cleaning the room with magic.

All throughout the scene, Harry stood silent, staring at the miracle of life before his eyes, tears in his eyes. Finally turning away from the infant that was his future wife, he walked away from the Burrow and noticed something that he wouldn't have, in fact couldn't have prior to becoming a Time Mage. Over the pond next to the Burrow, there was a time portal. It was incredibly subtle, and he only noticed it because of the ritual that allowed him to detect uses of time magic around him. The only actual clue he had, without the ritual effect, was that the waves of the pond were stuck in a ten second loop, and were absolutely identical in every aspect for each loop, even if another object were introduced to the pond to make 'different' waves, it would revert back to the same ten seconds later.

Walking over to it, he stepped out onto the water, using his own time powers to make it 'solid' without actually freezing the water, allowing him to reach the actual portal at the center of the pond. An instant of time later, the portal snapped open, sucked him up and closed, allowing nature to once again resume its normal pattern, and leaving the Weasley's with no clue that they'd just had an uninvited visitor to the birth of their latest and youngest member.

 _[August 11, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

Harry stepped out of the portal and just narrowly managed to avoid walking into the holly tree that marked the back corner of his property. Turning around, he saw that he was at the furthest point of his back yard… and the party was still going on. Or rather, he slowly realized in seeing some familiar sights and sounds, was starting all over again. Seconds after his arrival, he witnessed the outside perspective of his arrival from the future via the Pentaract travel. It was nearly as nauseating as the actual experience.

Sensing a presence beside him, he said without turning or looking, "What is the point of all this? Why are… why am _I_ doing this to myself? Motivation to learn time magic aside, why send me back to witness Gryffindor and Slytherin's Duel? Ginny's birth? Why do any of it?"

"Mostly?" his future self, unmasked, said. "To maintain the timeline and space/time continuum. It happened, therefore it will happen, and always has happened, even as it is happening right now."

"... That makes no sense," Harry turned and faced him.

"And yet it does," he shrugged. "When you think about it, I mean."

"You said 'mostly'. What's the rest of it?" Harry asked as he watched his past self set up the wards that in the end didn't do a damn bloody thing.

"Ginny is alive," he said. "She was just born in front of your eyes. She is alive and living and while you didn't 'save her' the way you had intended, she is still alive and to you, to me, to one who can travel through time, she will always be alive. The same can be said for our parents. Hey, want to guess where you're going next?"

"Where is Ginny?" he asked instead.

"Where do you think?" was the cryptic reply.

"Don't make me test Warning #3," Harry growled out.

"Ginny really was late to the party," he explained, ignoring the threat. "Remember? She sent a message ahead saying that she was running behind and wouldn't be back until almost four? Which is when she got kidnapped, as you well know, by yours truly. I'm not entirely sure, but this whole thing probably could have started out as doing a favor for her so she didn't miss most of the party. And then things happened. The Ginny that you tackled, that you 'rescued' from me is out there right now, enjoying and mingling and everything. She'll step out right before her past self shows up, meeting up with me back here, where we shall disappear, allowing everybody in the Wizarding World to think that she's been killed and leaving Harry Potter alone to grieve his loss."

"Why you?" Harry grumbled.

"Because," the future version answered as yet another time portal opened from just beyond the warded property, "you'll be far too busy. Here's a huge hint, I'm only about a week older than you. Somewhere between seven and eight days, give or take a couple hours. Everything so far? Amateur hour. You're about to get the crash course so you can pull off everything that I just did. Once I get Ginny settled in a Time Mage's version of Witness Protection, I'll be going in for the full course, and then some."

"And what if I don't want to do that? What if I change things so that Ginny doesn't 'die'? So we can continue our lives as they are now?" he argued, keeping one eye on the portal that had remained open so far. It was a good thing too, as it kept him from jumping too bad when an older figure stepped out and spoke.

"That, young man, would be a mistake. A fatal one at that," a much older voice that was still 'Harry Potter's' said as a man older than Dumbledore shuffled out of the time portal. "Hello gentlemen. How are we today?"

"You're me?" the 'youngest' Harry present scoffed.

The old man, with a full white-silver beard long enough to tuck into his belt, along with a silver mane to match, chuckled and merely observed his younger self, both hands holding himself up via a gnarled wooden cane/staff.

"He's your teacher for the next week," the 'middle' Harry answered. "After which, not only will you become me and do everything that I just did, you'll do it willingly and in full knowledge of the consequences, which make killing your wife seem like the sane and wise thing to do, not to mention infinitely merciful in comparison."

"Not that you'll actually be killing her," the old Harry interceded. "There is a trick to it, the whole 'Time Clone' thing. In the simplest terms you-and therefore _I_ -can imagine, it is like conjuring up a daydream and then both deciding _to_ do it, and _not to_ do it at the same time. You'll understand once you manage to pull it off a couple of times."

"Do I really have to talk down to myself like this?" the younger grumbled.

"Only when we're being a brat," the middle answered rather smugly.

"It all turns out OK, in the end?" he then asked his oldest self.

"Well, that remains for you to decide," was the cryptic reply. "As you said, you can still change things so that Ginny doesn't have to 'die', so that you can continue on with your life with her as though the whole thing was just one gigantic prank. It wouldn't be that difficult, once you know how, to go back and have Ginny and her brothers 'decide' to prank you for some random slight. But, as with everything, there are consequences. You'll have to decide which is worth it."

"He's right," the soon-to-be-only-Harry in this time zone said. "I've made my decision. And just because I remember being you right up until you walk through this portal in twenty seconds, does not mean that you'll make the same decisions that I have. First rule of being a time traveler…"

"There is no destiny or fate, only free will and consequences," all three of them recited together. It was the very first 'rule' of the book on time magic. The very first line just so happened to be; "Time Travel Is Possible." But the first _rule_ was about no fate.

"Fine," Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his wild black hair. He shot one last look at the Ginny at the party, and then glanced down the way and saw… his wife's car making the next to last bend before finally reaching the road onto their property. It was true.

"Let's go," he turned and made to follow his oldest self.

The old man just nodded once, his silver mane as wild as his younger selves black locks, just longer, and lead the way through the portal. Once they both had gone, Harry sighed in relief as he donned the mask once more, saying to himself, "I thought he'd never leave."

-END Phase Two-


	3. Phase 3

\- Phase Three -

 _[September 2, 2099]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

He exited the portal right ahead of the old man, and part of him wasn't surprised to see the same dilapidated structure that his home became in the hundred years since he and Ginny abandoned it. Turning, he watched as his older self walked out and moved past him over to the porch and made to sit down in the rocking chair positioned there.

"Why are we here? Isn't there some place… better, to do whatever it is I need to do?" Harry complained.

Chuckling, although it sounded more like wheezing at this point, the old Time Mage replied, "Not really. You see, this is an erased timeline."

"What?"

"You heard me," he said. "This is an erased timeline. There is no better place for you to 'do what you need to do' because there is literally nothing that you can do that can cause any harm here. Well, any lasting harm at any rate. And believe me, boy, you are going to make mistakes and mess up plenty. It's how you learn." He leaned forward in his rocking chair, but didn't get out of it and asked, "Now then, shall we get started?"

"Yes, please," Harry answered, being _anything_ but polite. "How exactly is this going to work, anyway?"

"How would you like it to work?" was the cryptic response, delivered with a shrug.

Rather than give in to his anger and frustration, Harry looked at his elder self and questioned, "What do you mean? What are my options? I thought this was all predetermined and whatnot."

"Even when destiny is decided, there are many paths to getting there," the Elder (as Harry was beginning to think of him) sagely stated. "You are going to go back and then bring your past self here for training. That is all that has been 'determined'. Exactly how you learn what you need to in order to do that…" another shrug, "Well that is up in the air."

"So… what are my options, then?" the Time Mage asked as looked to the Elder in a different light. He was offering him some choice at least.

"The fast and hard and dangerous way that basically involves me shooting various curses at you while you try and use time magic to save your life, while also trying to solve monumentally impossible tasks at the same time, so to speak," he said, leaning back in the chair and beginning to slowly rock back and forth. "Or, the long, time-looped, safe and easy method of student-and-teacher-on-either-end-of-a-log, which is basically what you're used to with Hogwarts teaching of magic. Of course, you also have 'option c' of doing both."

"Which one will make me hate myself less?" he prompted, fearing he already knew the answer.

"Oh, definitely the fast way," the Elder chuckled madly.

"OK, why?" he wanted to know.

"Think about it," he said. "With the safe way, it's just me lecturing you on the how and the why and the what until it finally clicks. And to be quite frank about it, english is a _terrible_ language to convey the concept of time magic, let alone the particulars of it! All those verb and noun tenses and grammar and BAH! And english is the only language you know. At the moment, anyway. How do you describe riding a bicycle to someone that has no concept of the road or a wheel or the purpose of such? Despite the fact that they are more than capable of performing such a feat moments after such concepts are revealed to them, beforehand it is almost impossible. So, you are more than welcome to 'come back' and tell me option c, but I think we both know your best option in succeeding in this lies in the fast way. No?"

"..." Harry frowned, grimacing. Finally he just sighed and nodded his head. He removed his robes and threw them over the railing by the porch and pulled out his wand. "Let's just do this alright."

"Very good," the Elder responded. "Try and stop Time. And not just around you, but Time Itself throughout all of existence. If even a single second is passing somewhere throughout the cosmos, my curses will keep coming. And before you complain about the Unforgivables and dark magic and all that shite, keep in mind that I'm a fully-experienced Time Mage. I can rewind and replay you being hit by the Death Curse a thousand and one times, and you'll remember every last little moment of it. Consider yourself warned."

What followed was infinitely worse than anything Hogwarts or work as an Auror or even his numerous adventures dealing with dark wizards and whatnot had ever challenged him with.

 _[September 3 thru 9, 2099]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

Harry's training under his elder self finally gave him an outlet for all the grief and anger and frustration he'd been bottling up ever since the moment he caught sight of his wife dropping dead. Not that he enjoyed it, but it was a true catharsis that no one else, who hadn't lost somebody, could understand.

That first day had been exactly what he'd been warned it would be; the Elder sitting on the porch in his rocking chair, shooting all manner of curses and potentially lethal spells at him as he raced back and forth, trying to figure out how to 'stop Time'. He finally managed it after about an 'hour' of work. Not even he was sure if that now meant an hour of subjective time from his perspective, or the actual passage of 3600 seconds in the real world. He just knew that he did succeed, despite using every 'time-stop' spell in his repertoire, the act of stopping Time was a whole magnitude above where he'd previously been working. That he could do it all would classify him as the most powerful wizard since Merlin, and even then Merlin would give him respect!

That he accomplished the task within an hour… It showed just how good at Time Magic that Harry Potter truly was.

Until he was faced with the next challenge from the Elder.

How to 'adjust' his own perspective time. It would basically mean and be the same thing as stopping time, or calling forth a vision of the future, but it was more… fluid and controllable. It basically boiled down to having controllable super speed and the ability to 'fast forward' through events going on around him. That took him… considerably more time to master, or even figure out in the first place. Elder would occasionally shout out advice, but the method of training did not differ very much from the first hour.

By the end of the first day, he'd finally figured out the 'trick' to using what the Elder called the "Speed Force" spell. He'd only manage to partially succeed exactly once, just as the sun was setting. Immediately after that, the Elder stopped attacking him with various curses and whatnot and told him they were done for the day. Harry was allowed to eat, rest, and regain his strength. And then in the time between dinner and finally falling asleep, he sat across from the Elder in his chair as they both stared into the blazing fireplace and the old man proceeded to tell him stories.

Sometimes the stories were exactly that, mere 'character' interaction and a telling of tales, both factual and fictional. More often though, the stories were about time travelers, wizards, heroes, and scientists as they messed around with the elusive element of 'Time'. These stories had both a moral, and provided insights in ways to use his powers, in actual use and in the theoretical as well. By morning, Harry mastered Speed Force within the same amount of 'time' that he had completed his first lesson. Thus was the pattern for the remainder of the week.

The Elder would challenge and provide Harry with a goal, and then physically torment him until he'd demonstrated he had fully mastered or attained said goal. If ever there was a skill or challenge that he failed to complete before the end of the day, they would pick right up the very next morning, where Harry would fully master it within an hours time. At night, he would rest and refuel, and then they would spend the evening with the Elder teaching him through storytelling as well as sometimes just answering and asking questions. The 'Student and Teacher on a Log in the Forest' method in other words. It wasn't the best way Harry learned, but it had its merits.

Of course, most of these… skills that he was being taught during the day were the time mage equivalent of a Wizard learning to Apparate, use Occlumency, or master the Animagus transformation. In short, they were _wandless_ magic. The third day, Harry discovered why.

"I should warn you," the Elder said, "not to use your wand during this exercise. You have already overused it as is when you used the Penteract spell that first time."

"What are you talking about? Hardly anything that you've had me learn these last couple days have required the use of my wand. What suddenly changed?" he asked.

"This exercise requires that you use magic to determine the amount of Time an object, a being, a place, and even lifeforms, both sentient and non-sentient, have been exposed to," the Elder presented his challenge for the day.

"... There's a trick to this, isn't there?" Harry asked, trying to puzzle it out.

"How long have you been alive? How long have these stairs and this porch been here? On what day were they put here as part of the house? How long did it take for construction to be completed? How long were all the distinct building materials for these stairs awaiting use in the hardware store? How long did it take for those materials to be constructed themselves? How long has it been since the tree for the wood was cut down? How long was that tree standing? When was the seed planted? Where is its mother tree, and how long ago was it planted? I could go on, but I think you see the ' _trick_ ' to it now, don't you?"

"And I can't use my wand for this?" Harry confirmed, as he quickly recognized that he was talking about one of the many 'diagnostic spells' that had been in the book. It was as simple as any other diagnostic spell one uses, a simple circle and a sharp flick before being assailed by the information from the spell's results. Of course, not using a wand would make things… more difficult, to say the least.

"I didn't say that," the Elder chuckled. "I said that I _should warn_ you that you _shouldn't_ use your wand for this, because you've overused it for your Time Magic already."

"Why is that significant?" Harry wanted to know.

"Are you going to get started or not?" the old man snapped.

"I want an answer to my questions first, if you please," he snapped back.

"Why not use your wand and find out," he challenged with a foreboding laugh.

Harry had long since learned to heed his Elder's warnings, as the few times that he did not, the old man wound up laughing himself to the floor and then rolling around while still giggling. Harry had decided to heed the warnings, if only to deny his tormentor laughter.

Except that this warning wasn't making any sense. What made Time Magic worse for wand use than Dark Magic? So, seeking his answer, and completing the challenge while denying the Elder his giggles, Harry focused his magic and used the spell _on_ his wand. It was about as challenging as casting a spell silently in his Sixth Year, if even that difficult. The results of the wandlessly-cast diagnostic spell, however, were a bit harder to swallow.

He'd had his wand since he was eleven years old. According to Ollivander, the man that had crafted it, it was made-more or less-at the same time Tom Riddle's wand was made, and both were only made after Fawkes had donated the tail feathers for them. And Fawkes had only done so after becoming Dumbledore's Familiar, the earliest point at which was _after_ Grindelwald's Defeat in 1950. So, at most, his wand should show that it is just under fifty years old.

His wand registered as being over one millennia in age and use.

He could also see the 'history' of how long he'd had it, at what point it was crafted, how long there was between Fawkes donating the feather to being put into the wand, how long it took Fawkes to _grow_ the tail feather, when the phoenix's birthday was, the age of the wood, when it was cut from the holly tree, how old that holly tree was, when it was planted, when its seed went into the ground… The point being, he could see _all_ of that and it indeed matched up with what he knew about his wand. And yet its use still registered as being at least one thousand years and more.

"What is this?" he demanded of the Elder.

"Oh, done it already?" he teased.

"Why does my wand show as being used for a _millennia_?!" he shouted.

"You're a Time Mage," the Elder remarked. "Time works differently for you than it does for… well, pretty much anything else in the whole of Creation. That would include your wand."

Harry snarled, giving the deceased Snape a run for his money in the sneering department.

"Calm yourself," said the Elder before he could do much else. "Let me explain. Every time you use your wand, you channel your magic through it. Every time you use healing or defensive magic, the wand is renewed, restored and repaired. Every time you use destructive or offensive magic, well, it isn't damaged so much as it 'heats up' from the energy use, same as any weapon. Use of dark magic corrupts the wand. I'll trust that you are getting my point and just spell it out for you, boy."

Harry refreshed his sneer, but held his tongue, listening.

"By using _time magic_ , your wand is exposed to the energies and power of Time itself. And unlike you, your wand is not immune to the ravages and tearing of time. The spells that you've used it for have already taken a toll, as you just observed. Another spell at the same level as the Penteract and it will waste away in your hands."

"What do you suggest I do about that? There was never anything in the book about this, by the way!" Harry argued.

"Be sure to correct that then, when you get around to writing it," said the Elder, scoffing. "As for what I suggest, there is nothing to _suggest_ about it in the first place. You have to craft yourself a new wand. One that is specifically designed to channel the energies of time magic. A wand that can withstand the ravages and tearing of Time, and preferably one that could, theoretically, last for all of eternity."

"Great," Harry scowled. "That's just perfect. Absolutely splendid. I don't know the first thing about how to do that."

"Sure you do," the Elder cackled. "Or at least you will. Next challenge; find a way to Know what you Need to Know, without having to bother learning about it the slow way. May want to focus on wand crafting, by the way. Oh, and to keep you on your toes while you figure it out, I'll be littering the place with Temporal Singularities. You might also want to figure out how to diffuse those, as they can get quite nasty if left on their own."

"Grrr!"

What followed was, quite literally, navigating a minefield while trying to twist his thoughts around the problem and come up with a suitable solution. There was no way to do it, of course, not even magic can make somebody _know_ something the moment they _need_ to know it. Until he thought about it backwards, and also remembered his and Hermione's "Excellent Adventure" at the end of their Third Year at Hogwarts.

Simply study and train and learn everything needed about whatever it is that is that one needs to know, and then 'come back' and do it again. Except, he now knew how to 'foresee' certain futures and events… so why not 'foresee' knowledge that he _could_ gain in the future the same way?

Constructing the spell to use time magic in this manner took a fair bit of concentration on his part, as did identifying and dodging and dismantling all of the Temporal Singularities (IE, Space-Time Mines). Still, it was not impossible, not for him at least. Once he had the spell figured out, it became a simple matter of casting it… while dodging and disabling Space-Time mines. Catch was, no matter his ability at casting wandlessly, he needed to remain completely motionless for the duration of the spell's effect, and the mines, and the Elder, weren't allowing him that time. So before he could do that, he needed to figure out some way to disable and _prevent_ the use of the Space-Time mines for at least the duration needed for the spell to take effect.

Took him another ten minutes to figure that trick out, and less than a second to implement it after confirming that it would work. Right after that, he cast the spell and less than a minute later (fifty-two seconds to be specific), he suddenly _knew_ how to go about making his new wand.

Not that the Elder was about to let him sit down and construct it right then and there, of course.

Unless… unless, of course, there was more of him than the Elder could keep track of… After all, for one night, thanks to a wizard-made device to use time magic, there were _two_ of him in the same place at the same time. All it required was a simple time travel spell. In fact, it was the simplest one there is, and was the same one enchanted into the Time Turners themselves. It also made things immutable and unchangeable, so if he succeeded, there wasn't anything the Elder could do to stop him. Although… if he _didn't_ succeed, then he needed to figure out a way to do it so that he could be forewarned and change things in his favor.

Dodging another set of Space-Time mines, he considered his options. Simplest one that came to mind was to have a Temporal Clone 'observe' each of his attempts and then come back and provide him with the list and be forewarned that way.

When no such clone or list or anything manifested itself, he almost gave up on that option, until he considered ways of getting that information… covertly.

He switched his sight to observe Space/Time Distortions, and aside from now seeing exactly what effect the Space-Time mines were having, he also saw a message from a 'past' self, written and hidden in a way that only a Time Mage could see it. The message was simply, ' _He Cheats!_ ' and that told Harry all the he needed.

He stopped moving and quickly disabled all of the Space-Time mines with a wave of his hand. Obviously, he used complex time magic to do it, but physically all he did was wave his hand while simultaneously sealing the Elder off from his continuum. Once that was done, he set about creating a veritable army of Time Clones, each one with a very specific job to do.

By the time the Elder reconnected to his Space/Time Continuum, the field around Potter's Mill was literally filled with the Harry Potters. More than half very quickly turned and started attacking the Elder with the same Space-Time mines and various curses he'd been throwing at Harry for the past week. Meanwhile, the real Harry Potter and the remainder of his Temporal Clones set about constructing his new wand.

To his amazement, the Elder merely raised one hand and with a single spell, halted all of the destruction aimed at him and then reversed it to the point of oblivion. In the wake of the spell's passing, somehow a… an anti-time-manipulation field, for lack of any better term, was established and prevented the Space/Time Mines or other destructive time magic from being unleashed anymore.

"Whoops," the Elder chuckled as he settled himself back into his rocking chair. "I hadn't meant to show that to you yet. Anyway, let's see if you can figure out how to do it yourself, boy." And then the assault with deadly spells and destructive time magic resumed. Except…

Harry raised his hand and removed those spells from his time-stream. They were still moving and would still cause massive amounts of damage upon hitting, but now they were existing in a time frame that was infinitesimally slower than his own time frame. Stepping closer, he examined the spells and tried to figure out exactly how the Elder had just pulled off that particular trick. The answer was, surprisingly, obvious. By reversing time for _that space_ where the spells would exist, _space_ became… vaccinated for lack of a better term, against that specific method of destruction. He could see it now, he could do it!

But what else could he do with it?

The time clones finished his wand in record time and soon handed him his new wand.

"I knew I shouldn't have shown you that," the Elder said as Harry tried out his new wand. "It presents as a paradox, resulting in the idea being…"

"You're right!" Harry snapped. "Why the hell would you show me something that could potentially wipe out all of existence?!"

"Wait, what?" the Elder was flabbergasted.

Harry 'reversed' all of the destructive spells sent his way with a wave of his new wand, and as with what happened when the Elder did it, they were prevented from 'happening again'. The young Time Mage then continued his rant in regards to what he had just learned.

"By _reversing_ not just the _time_ around the attacks, but also the _space_ , it leads very quickly into figuring out how to reverse _energy itself_! By reversing Space/Time, a residual energy field remains in place that specifically counters the very energy of the attack, so that when time starts moving forward again for that bit of Space/Time, the energy of the attack is met with its exact reverse, negating the attack from forming in the first place."

He took a deep breath and began to pace, even as he used his new wand to practice a few of the other 'tricks' he'd picked up since. "Do you even realize what this means? What it _could_ mean?!"

"Why don't you enlighten me?" the Elder posed, leaning forward in his chair.

"Theoretically," Harry glared at the old man version of himself, "a Time Mage could go back to the beginning of Creation, or even _REVERSE_ Creation, and leave behind this same kind of energy field, thereby destroying… _EVERYTHING_ by simply making sure nothing ever existed in the first place! By leaving behind a _Reverse Energy Field of CREATION ITSELF_! Why would you show me that?!"

"Huh," the Elder grunted. "I… did not know that was a possibility. Well, so much for my fears about a bootstrap paradox."

"This whole damn scenario of me being trained by you is a damned bootstrap paradox!" Harry screamed.

"Not really," the Elder shook his head. "I've been presenting you with challenges. The ideas and skills that you've come up with to overcome those challenges have all been yours. The same with any ideas that you got that were… inspired by the stories I tell you at night. All your ideas."

"So, what you're saying is that you're not training me because _you_ were trained by an older version of yourself," Harry scoffed.

"And now you're getting it, Boy," the old man smiled toothily.

Harry, on the other hand, frowned and stared in utter incomprehension at what he'd _thought_ was his older self. Pointing his new Time Magic proof wand at the aged Time Mage, he accused, "You're _not_ me? Then who, or should I say _what_ are you?"

"I'm the culmination of everything you have to learn," the old man replied with a casual shrug. "No need for a Casual Loop, when a Closed Loop will work just as well."

"Closed Loop?" he repeated, his eyes suddenly lighting up with understanding. "You're a Time Clone. A… a version of me… that has mastered Time Magic and will teach it to… me, but how? A time clone is just a, a _possibility_ , one that I simultaneously decide to follow and not to follow. And then I just…"

"Bring that possibility into the current time stream until its 'time' expires," the Elder finished for him. "I'm the advanced form of exactly that. I am a future that you never want, but need in order to learn. I know all the mistakes that you could ever possibly make, because I made them. And I know precisely how to show you in how _not_ to make them. Although I truly didn't know that about ending all of existence. Might want to correct that when it is your turn to manifest me."

"How…? Who manifested you? It couldn't have been the one we just left!" Harry exclaimed.

"It is the you that ultimately decides upon this course of action," he replied. "The 'eldest' Time Mage, that begins this whole scenario of getting you to learn Time Magic in the first place. The _you_ that sets everything into motion. Not to worry, you'll know how to do tricks like this long before we're done here."

Harry fumed, gripping his new wand tightly in his hand.

Looking down at the wand, he suddenly realized he'd seen it before. It was the same one the 'masked kidnapper' had held when initially kidnapping Ginny, back when this whole thing began. It was all happening. It was happening just the same as before and he couldn't stop it. Could he?

"I could leave. Right now," he threatened.

"You could always leave. At any time. And you know the way to leave as well," the Elder said.

Harry frowned and turned away.

"But you won't," the old man said, leaning back in his rocking chair.

"What makes you say that?" he cast over his shoulder.

"You've had a taste for it now," the Elder cackled. "You want more. You won't be satisfied until you've had the whole thing now. And you're still hung up on saving your wife from dying, despite already knowing how to prevent that. You are afraid of something else, that something worse than a self-inflicted predestination scenario may come along some day that you won't be prepared for. As you weren't prepared for this. I can show you how to be prepared. I can prepare you, Harry Potter."

He stopped walking away and turned on the spot. "Can you?" he asked.

"Yes," the Elder answered, "I can."

 _[August 11, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

Harry stepped out of the portal and into a time and place that he'd been to before, but from an entirely different perspective. And, honestly, not one that he'd been expecting. He'd been prepared to step through and have to drag Ginny, in the middle of her party, through a portal before being tackled by his invisible younger self. He now knew everything, and more importantly _how_ everything had been done by his future selves in this whole scenario so far. He even knew how to create the portal network.

The trick wasn't to bypass the wards against time travel, but to side-step them. The wards had been extremely specific, preventing any kind of time portals or time travel of that nature within their field of effect. So, rather than a time portal, he'll use a _spatial_ portal, that connects with two other _time_ portals that are outside the range of the hastily constructed wards against their use. One for him, Ginny and his past self, and then the other to take that first version of him to the erased timeline with the dilapidated Potter's Mill.

He actually expected to do that _after_ having already gone through them with Ginny and his younger self, and set the network up after the fact. Apparently… that was not going to be the case.

"OK," he said, holding up his empty hands, confusion clear on his face, "What is going on here? Did I come back at the wrong time?"

"No, unfortunately, you are right on time," the other Harry Potter, Time Mage, replied with a heavy sigh. It might have been ok if it were only him, but apparently somebody had the good idea to create a doppleganger of Ginny and put her in front of her past and/or future self.

"OK, what did I miss?" he asked, trying to figure out which Ginny was, uh… _his_ Ginny. Unfortunately, all his senses were telling him that they were the same woman, from the _exact_ same time period! Which was a problem, seeing one was holding her wand on the other and looked like she'd been through some kind of hell.

"Quite a lot, unfortunately," the other him replied. OK, this was getting ridiculous. "You can think of, and address me as James. Seeing as I'm the oldest, at the moment. Unless you prefer to be called 'Hank', being the youngest?"

Grumbling, Harry regarded James with a baleful eye and remarked, "Very well, _James_ , perhaps you can explain how there is another Ginny in this place and time? She's not a time clone, and as near as I can tell, they're both the same person, from the _exact same_ time. Now, what the bloody hell happened and… for that matter, where the bloody hell are we? I was aiming for Potter's Mill. Why are we in a concrete bunker?"

"We're actually in the basement, Harry," the party-dress-wearing Ginny replied.

"Why…" he stopped and 'checked' the current time. "Wait a second here, how was I able to get in here? The house, basement included, is within the effective range of the wards I set up after travelling back via Penteract. Am I in an alternate timeline, somehow?"

"Not… exactly," James said.

"It's been a long week, can we just get on with this already?" Harry finally put his hands down.

"Um, well, have you calmed down some?" James asked.

"I know what I have to do to save Ginny. Still don't know why we're going through all this trouble to fake her death, but…"

"I'm the reason why," the 'other' Ginny finally spoke, still holding her wand on all three of them.

He stopped talking and actually looked at this other woman. He really didn't like what he was seeing there. Her hair was longer, dirtier. There was bruising all over her face and arms, and a rather nasty gash coloring her left cheek. Her robes were torn, burned and bloody in ways that told him not all of it was hers. She was barefoot, and with every step she left behind a red footprint. But it was her eyes that told the whole story.

Something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.

He pulled out his 'new' wand and cast a more detailed diagnostic spell. She turned her wand on him, but he ignored her, already having protections in place against her attacking him.

The results appeared before his eyes, and it took him some moments to properly interpret exactly what they meant. And even after he was sure that he was reading them correctly, he still had trouble believing it. _This_ was the "original" Ginny for the time line he was in. More than that though, she was the " _true_ " Ginny according to Time Itself. Unless he changed it.

"What happened?" he demanded, lowering his wand.

 _The Shrieking Shack_

 _Hogsmeade Village_

 _Scotland_

The explanation was, unfortunately, as brief as it was unbelievable.

He, Harry Potter, had died. When walking off during the Battle of Hogwarts, to face down Voldemort's ultimatum in those final hours, walking straight into the Death Eater's camp to be struck down by the Dark Lord's death curse in order to vanquish the Last Horcrux, apparently in this timeline he did not choose to come back, or something else had happened. His body had remained limp in Hagrid's shaking grip and at no point did he leap up to start the final battle and lead the Light to victory.

Ginny had been running ever since.

"How the bloody hell is this even possible?" Harry asked 'James' and Ginny Potter. "I performed the ritual that Time Locked my history! This cannot have happened. My history is set. It happened, it happens, it will happen, it _always_ happened! And now, suddenly, I'm dead and all my friends are on the run?!"

"Your… our history _is_ Locked," James confirmed. "Hers is not," he said, pointing at the two Ginnys. "At least… not yet."

"What do you mean?" Ginny Weasley asked.

"Seriously," Harry snapped, "What the hell happened? No more delays."

"Short answer?" James shrugged. "You did. Or rather, travelling via _Penteract_ happened."

"That…" Harry stopped and held his tongue. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he said, "Go ahead. I'm listening."

"Wow, you have calmed down," James commented. Then he too took a deep breath and began to explain, "OK, where to begin, huh? Always the way. Good thing everybody is already sitting, as this is going to take a bit to explain here. For you, Harry, the explanation is using the Penteract spell invokes folds in Space/Time that converge in a fifth dimensional plane so as to manipulate and influence the standard fourth dimension. These folds make up the _sides_ of the invoked penteract that magic manifests as frames in temporal convergence. By utilizing a magic made penteract for travel, you traverse to a single side from the center-point, and by consequence cause all other sides to randomly, or not so randomly shift into a new alignment as the side you reside now becomes the center-point. Now, keeping in mind just how difficult it was to _invoke_ the penteract, to picture it clearly and call it into being? Every fluctuation in the timestream, or in space, or even at the atomic level further realigns the magical construct, which further fluctuates outward into real space. To clarify, this is _not_ a theoretical model. You opened a can of worms, and now it is up to you, to me, to _us_ basically, to navigate this magical 5-Cube that we have unleashed upon the universe. Before we can start the loop over, we have to resolve and disconnect the Penteract that you, that I initially unleashed by trying to go back in time and save Ginny from what basically turned out to be myself. With me so far?"

"So," Harry nodded as James finished speaking, "We're dealing with eighty different timelines? Why did we write… why is this damn spell in the Journal in the first place if it is so damned dangerous anyway? Especially with the notes about how, once resolved successfully, the established pattern ensures stability and the outcome remains constant? Huh?"

"Yeah, I remember what you remember about that," James acknowledged. "That we, that I thought it meant if I saved Ginny, it meant that she couldn't ever be 'killed' by the masked man. And you're actually wrong about that. Eighty different Space/Times, and then an additional eighty convergence points between them all, to say nothing of the interactions and potential convergences of those edges and vertices where they meet. We're actually talking over eighty to the thirty-second power in terms of potential elements and combinations that can result in varying timelines. Needless to say, or maybe not so needless, we really didn't think this through."

Harry blinked and considered. While he was doing this, James turned to the now very confused redheads listening in, and who were both very lost.

"For you two, this is going to take some… creative thinking on your parts. Not that you can't understand, or are dumb on any level, but Harry here and I have at least researched the material and have first-hand knowledge about just how Time works. Now then, first, the theoretical."

He pulled out his wand and started conjuring lights. Specifically, he drew a white glowing square in the air in front of them. "This is a square. Two-dimensional, it only has an up," he 'drew' an arrow in the middle of the square, pointing up, and then a moment later attached a down arrow to it as well, "and a down. And then a left and a right." He drew a cross-section arrow pointing in both directions. "Two points of axis, two dimensions. With me so far?"

Both young women nodded their heads, but frowning at the simultaneous thought that he was somehow talking down to them. They very quickly appreciated the fact that he was doing so.

"In terms of Time Magic, this represents the future and the past, but not the present," James continued to explain. "For that, we need three-dimensions." He quickly drew out the glowing white outline of a box from the square. "This is a cube. It has up and down, it has left and right, and it has forward and back. This represents the present in Time magic, and just that. Only the present. Each moment has a future, a past, and can go in absolutely any direction, but it is only a single point, a single moment of time. A cube has six sides," he then colored each side of the glowing box as he counted off, "One, two, three, four, and five and six. Six points are necessary to identify any single moment in time and space. Still with me?"

Still frowning, they both silently nodded their heads yes.

He then returned it to a glowing white frame of an empty clear box floating in mid-air. Before he seemed to shrink the cube down so that there was a 'box inside a box' with lines connecting the eight corners to both the 'inside' box and the 'outside' box.

"This is a Tesseract. It is to a cube, what a cube is to a square," he said. "Just as the surface of the cube consists of 6 square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of 8 cubical cells. This is, mathematically, the most accurate one can get to representing Space/Time. Again, mathematically, and this is all theory. Six points to a cube, but there are eight cubes that are part of this, each with six points to them. In terms of time magic, it helps in keeping track of something, and also is a much better means of getting around than Apparating. So long as you have the proper coordinates, you can, quite literally, go anywhere in the universe with a tesseract."

He then, without asking if they were with him or not, reshaped the tesseract into what they were currently dealing with. "A penteract," he told them. "That is the name for a five-dimensional hypercube with 32 vertices, 80 edges, 80 square faces, 40 cubic cells, and 10 tesseract 4-faces. It is a fifth dimension construct. And the most simplest way to explain time travel, as a tesseract is a way to explain space travel. Now, the simplest way that I can explain it is like this; each square face represents a single point, and each point can be either a person, a place, an event, or a combination of all three. The edges and the vertices, the points at which all the squares and cubes connect, represent the _interaction_ of all those different people, places, events, etc through time. What I did, by casting this spell, ladies, is I created a… a structure, a penteract structure of Time and Space, and then I moved it."

"So…" Ginny Potter spoke up after a few moments of thoughtful silence, "what you're saying is that by using this spell to travel through time… instead of just travelling to that point in the penteract model, you actually moved the model _around you_ , so… so all those points, those sides and everything you're talking about, they're all in a different… a different configuration around you now… Oh, wow." She suddenly grabbed her head at the temples and leaned over. "I need a drink."

"Yeah, that is most people's reaction to talking about time travel," James shrugged.

"What I'm still trying to wrap my head around is how you… both of you are still alive? You're dead!" Ginny Weasley exclaimed.

"I Time-Locked my history," James explained before Harry could get into it. "What that means is, I performed a ritual that makes it so that _nothing_ can change my past or alter it in anyway. Not even the Penteract spell. So, whatever configuration-as you put it-that time and history gets rearranged into, in the end my history and past will remain as it always was. That doesn't mean everybody and everything else's will be. Even those that directly affect my timeline and history, so long as 'my interactions' with them match with the Locked Events, then it can all be different. So long as we're married by the time of my eighteenth birthday, and we're living at Potter's Mill by my nineteenth, then everything else about your life can be entirely fluid and mercurial."

"So now," Harry finally spoke up, "our job is rather straightforward. We have to 'resolve' the Penteract, and preferably in a form that is favorable for all involved."

"Except the bad guys," James added with a cocky smirk.

"How do we do that?" both Ginnys asked together.

At this, Harry was the one to smile and pull his wand out for a demonstration.

"Are you familiar with this?" he conjured a pair of multi-colored grid-cubes, as immaterial as the white penteract still hovering in the middle of the room. "It's a muggle toy, my cousin had a few, but he could never solve them. It's called a _Rubic's Cube™_ , a simple logic puzzle. After all the sides get mixed up," he waved his wand and the 'grid' shifted until each side had at least one of each color on it, "you have to shift it around until you get all the colors back on their proper sides. We have to do the same thing to a magical Penteract that traverses space and time. Hardly simple at all, I'm afraid."

"He's not wrong," James replied with an apologetic shrug.

"What do we have to do?" Ginny Weasley asked, gripping her wand and getting to her feet.

"Where do we start?" Ginny Potter asked, also standing and ready to go.

"Oh, that's easy," James grinned. "We reinforce my timeline and then see what that leaves us with. Then we start fixing your timeline."

"No," Harry interrupted, still sitting, thinking.

"What?" James asked, surprised.

"No," he said again. "We need to split up. And my timeline, my history is going to be fine. If it weren't, we'd already be dealing with the consequences of Time unravelling on us. That isn't happening, it's just… shifting. We need… no," he stood up and matched gazes with 'James'. " _ **I**_ need to go around and test the limits of this Penteract I created. I need to visit, to go to _every single_ 'side' and 'edge' and 'vertex' and only once I have a proper idea of the shape of things do we… do _**I**_ start making changes and trying to resolve the Penteract."

"You do realize, of course, this will do nothing to resolve the Loop, or 'save Ginny' from the masked killer, don't you?" James confirmed. "All of that still has to happen after we resolve this mess of ours, you understand?"

Harry merely nodded his head.

"All right," the older Harry Potter nodded in reply and took his wife, Ginny Potter, by the hand and stepped back from their counterparts. "I'll do my part when the time comes. You'll probably run into another one of us before things are resolved. All I can say is, be patient with him. You'd best take that Ginny with you, she's dead otherwise, and once everything is resolved, hopefully she'll go back to being your wife anyway. See you, heh, later Harry!"

"Until next time… Harry," the younger Harry Potter waved his older self and wife off as they walked off through a newly opened time portal, leaving him, a Harry that had just lost his Ginny, behind with a Ginny that had just lost her Harry.

"This is very confusing," she finally said to him, as a way to break the ice in the suddenly chilly atmosphere between them.

He smiled and laughed. "You have no idea, Gin. You have no idea."

 _[August 31, 1999]_

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

"Fitting," Harry commented as he and Ginny stepped out of the Time Portal, "that it all comes back to here and now. This is where I initially cast the Penteract spell, trying to go back in time to your…" he said to her confused glance, "To your birthday party. Of course, it didn't used to look quite so, hm, _festive_. This _was_ the center point, and now it's the _furthest point_ from the center. This is gonna be a lot harder than rearranging pieces on a toy."

"Does it all have to be back in the exact same configuration that it originally was?" she asked, looking around at the turquoise picket fence and pebble-stone garden path leading from the front gate to the front door of the pink/purple/canary yellow painted millhouse.

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking at her.

"I mean… some of what we just saw, getting here and now… not all of it was bad. Isn't there a way to, I don't know, keep some of the good things without all the bad?" she pleaded.

"Possibly," he shrugged. "I'm still learning this, Ginny. Unfortunately, now isn't the time for guessing or learning. This is basically my OWL Test in Time Magic. Or maybe it is just my 'First Year End Of Year Exams'. I'm not entirely sure on that right now. What I do know is that we have to change or influence _events_ and _actions_ in order to rearrange the Penteract. That will rearrange the shape of the whole thing. Unfortunately, we only have a limited amount of time before the Penteract resolves itself anyway, and, each change we make, for good or bad, greatly reduces the time we'll have left."

"How much, uh, time do we have?" Ginny asked, feeling silly for asking that of a _Time Mage_.

"Right now?" he shrugged. "A little over a day. Depending upon the first change we make, that could shrink it down to less than a day, or to less than an hour."

Nodding, she pulled out her wand and got ready. "All right. What do we do first?"

"Well," he said, looking about at the colorful backdrop, "Right now things are still moving along _your_ timeline, which I think we both can agree is one that we desperately want to change, correct?"

"Um, Yes!" she emphatically agreed.

"So we change events so they happen more along the lines of my timeline, or as close as we can get it. I understand that you want to make it so I don't die facing Voldemort, but that is going to be a _big_ change and will cut our time down to nil. We have to start small and keep every change-if possible-as small, so that history sort of… corrects itself."

"And again, I ask," she smiled, "what do we do first?"

"Find out who lives here," he replied with a smile of his own, walking up to the pink-painted front door and knocking.

A few moments later, the door was opened and Harry Potter and GInny Weasley were treated to one of the more… _amusing_ surprises they would encounter upon this trip. Draco Malfoy, dressed like he was the Weasley's blonde-stepchild, his hair wild and messy and sticking hilariously out to the side, opened the door with a herd of cats at his feet and a baby in his arms. A very… Asian-looking baby, Harry silently noted.

"Yeah, wut iz it?!" the very-changed Draco slurred, not from drowsiness or drunkenness, but because he seems to have developed a South Londoner's accent.

Harry just blinked and stared. Ginny covered her mouth, trying desperately not to laugh as she too stared. Draco very nearly dropped the baby in his arms as he stared, agape.

"Ha-Har-Harree… _Harry Potter_!" he suddenly screamed.

"I think I know what change we need to make first," the green-eyed Time Mage whispered over his shoulder to his companion.

"Get a picture of this and post it in the Daily Prophet when everything gets fixed?" she said over her uncontrollable giggles.

Before anything else could be said or done, the cats suddenly scrammed and the door was slammed all the way open, revealing a _very_ pregnant (and not 'fully recovered' from her last pregnancy at that) Cho Chang. Although judging from the rings on her left hand, the time travelers quickly realized it was probably Cho _Malfoy_ in this timeline. It really didn't help the image that she was in house slippers and a moumou.

"And _where_ have you been, Mister?!" she screamed, sounding far too much like Molly Weasley than anybody without red hair had a right to.

"This is a nightmare," Harry grumbled, rubbing his face.

"Oh, I don't know, I think it's funny as hell," Ginny giggled.

Harry just sighed and briefly considered his options at the moment. He had a pretty good understanding of the current layout of the Penteract for the time being, but he still didn't have a strategy for fixing everything quite yet. Unfortunately, this was not like the kids toy where you could spin all the sides forever until you eventually matched up the colors correctly. Each change they made would become permanent after they made it, so he had to make each and every one count, and he had to do it all in the right order. So, before they started mucking about with history, he needed information, and-ironically enough-time to plan his moves.

Wow, things sure had changed for him since leaving school.

"Malfoy, Cho, er… been a while?" he said, trying to sound casual.

"A _while_?!" Cho screamed. "Nobody's even _seen_ you since my last year at Hogwarts! Of course, there've been rumors, but no one has actually seen you, in public, for almost four years now!"

Ginny blinked, and frowned, because while the amount of time was different, what they were saying about Harry disappearing after his 6th Year was the way she remembered things too.

"Rumors?" Harry asked, crossing his arms.

"'Fore we get into that, Potter," Malfoy replied, (making it incredibly difficult not to laugh in the face of that accent), "howse 'bout you splain to the Missus 'ere, where youse been, eh?"

Harry just smiled at the pair of them, not saying a word, just staring and smiling. A few seconds into it, they both looked uncomfortable. By the count of twenty, they were sweating bullets. They both broke before even half a minute had passed, but Malfoy definitely broke first, though it was pretty close.

"Ah… Course, it ain't nunna our bizness whut youse get up to, Potter. Ain't that right, Mistress?" Malfoy nervously responded, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Cho just nodded her wobbly chin up and down.

"Rumors?" he repeated, arms still crossed.

"That you and Granger both snapped and were trying to take over the world, or something," Cho hurriedly answered.

"Right, as disgusted as I am to continue conversing with the two of you," he said, being briefly interrupted by Ginny slapping his arm and crying out, "Harry!"

"I'm going to need more information than that. Mind if we come in?" he continued as though there were no interruption at all.

Twenty minutes later, the two time travelers exited the Mill and were equally horrified and bemused by what they had learned.

"Well," Harry mused to himself and his companion, "that actually explains quite a lot, and tells me how we can fix this with just one single change, and everything else should line up from that."

"I thought you said that your timeline was fixed! How the bloody hell is you and Hermione becoming the next Dark Lord personified explaining _anything_?!"

"My timeline is only fixed to the day that I received the book on Time Magic," he answered, opening up another portal to the exact place and time they would need. "Which I got on my eighteenth birthday, I'll have you know. Unfortunately, I didn't even crack it until the day after… the day after your birthday. I mean, I opened it, I understood what it was about, but I didn't really start to…"

"I get it, Harry," she said, patting his shoulder as they stepped through the portal. They stepped out into a back alley in some muggle neighborhood, and it was night.

"Where… when are we?" Ginny asked, suddenly feeling the need to whisper.

"The new center point of the penteract," he whispered back. "Now listen, because we've only got one shot at this, and we have to be precise. Just think of it as a very elaborate prank done by your brothers."

"What do you need me to do?" she asked, trusting him completely, even still while knowing that once this was all resolved she would effectively cease to exist. But her life would be better for it, she believed that. She had to believe it.

"First," he glanced needlessly at a clock spell, "scream. As loud and as terrified as you can, right now."

She only paused to take a deep breath and then unleashed a banshee wail that would have Molly Weasley brimming with pride, if she wouldn't already be looking to slaughter the miscreant that caused her baby girl to scream so.

Fingers in his ears, Harry nodded and glanced around as the neighborhood around them 'woke up' at the sound of (to their ears) a woman being attacked. A few doors and windows opened up, but what he was most hoping for-and they did-was the windows of the building across the street to light up as the occupants woke up and turned their lights on.

"That should do," he nodded, taking her hand and running down the alley away from the now-lit building.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Hang on, it'll become clear momentarily," he answered breathlessly as they came to the end of the alley and exited out to the left of a busy street with plenty of pedestrians.

Fortunately, both of them were in trousers and shirts, rather than robes, so they fit in well enough. Destination firmly in mind, Harry led his companion quickly through the foot traffic to a nearby diner just at the end of the street they'd just had all the lights turn on at. Stopping just outside, he cast a quick spell and to Ginny's eyes seemed to _stutter_ in place.

"What is it?" she asked, no longer whispering.

"Just double-checking things," he smiled back at her before hurrying into the diner and began going through the place like a localized storm. The cashier glanced up at him moving things around, like the napkin dispensers, a couple of glass-covered posters, the security mirror and the like. But then shrugged to himself and muttered something about OCD freaks. By that time, Harry had already done everything he needed to, even pickpocketed the manager and putting their keys just on the other side of the register where the cashier couldn't see it, but someone else would.

That all done, he then grabbed Ginny and Disapparated out of the back room with her to a spot further down the now-lit street.

"OK, while we have a moment, explain to me what it is we're doing here?!" the fiery redhead demanded once they'd left the diner. "And what were you thinking using magic in public like that?! How is violating the Statute of Secrecy supposed to _fix_ the timeline?"

"That is the diner that Hermione, Ron and I first went to after escaping the disaster that was Bill and Fleur's wedding reception," he answered.

Ginny blinked and did a double-take.

"Bill got _married_?!" she screeched.

Harry just shrugged and smiled. "I won't go into the details of why it didn't happen for you, but it is happening here and now. I figure you have enough of a headache at the moment. Suffice to say, this is the night that Hermione gets abducted and captured by the enemy and eventually turns dark, influencing my timeline, and thus everyone else's timeline according to the Penteract. We stop that from happening, everything goes back to the way it is supposed to be."

"I remember Cho saying Hermione disappeared about, uh… this time, I guess," Ginny acknowledged. "How did you get that she was abducted and taken by the enemy out of that?"

"Unfortunately," Harry said, suddenly whispering, "we just ran out of explanation time. See that policeman over there?" He pointed at the uniformed officer walking down the brightly-lit street, apparently his cruiser parked further down the way. "Keep him busy, keep him talking, keep him on this street. Don't get arrested, but don't let him leave. And for the sake of my sanity, if you dare to flirt with him…"

She giggled at him, leaving his threat hanging.

Nodding, she said, "OK. No flirting, but keep him here. While I'm keeping him here, what are you going to be doing?"

"Making sure that he _can't_ leave, even if he tries," he answered mysteriously before disappearing under his Invisibility Cloak.

Ginny just laughed at his comment before adjusting her hair and breathing before turning to her objective and running out onto the street. Right before practically running right into the police officer, she cried out, "Help! Please, help me!"

"What's the problem, Miss…?" he responded, hand on his belt.

While Ginny was, hopefully, keeping the policeman hanging around without too much difficulty, Harry was, invisibly, just around the corner, setting the parking brake on his cruiser, while securing the bicycle attached to the rear end so it could not be removed. He didn't want the police officer reporting vandalism to his vehicle, or get in trouble with the carpool for a flat tire or anything like that, but he _really_ needed the police to stick around longer than they actually would. He also put a one-time-use-temporary charm on the floor that would essentially make him drop the keys and be unable to pick them up for at least ten to thirty seconds. Any longer and the whole point of them sticking around would be moot. Once that was all taken care of, he did one last quick 'check' on the future of this night, and was pleased to note that the policeman and his lights and siren would do their job just like they were supposed to.

Now he just needed to take care of one last detail. Grabbing a single sheet of paper off the clipboard, as well as a spare pen, Harry vacated the police cruiser and made his way, invisibly, to a nearby mailbox. He scribbled a quick note, signed it anonymous, and then conjured a parchment envelope to seal it into, proper postage and everything.

It was a letter to the Lovegoods, Xenophilius and Luna, sent via muggle mail. It would arrive (and he'd checked to make sure) the day Luna left for Hogwarts. As for the message itself, well the exact content didn't matter, seeing as the Lovegoods behaviour could hardly ever be predicted. Unless, of course you were a time traveler that could 'read' the message that _would_ actually work. In short, Luna would go to Hogwarts knowing she would be kidnapped and taken to Malfoy Manor, as well as what she would have to say and/or do to ensure she wasn't killed. Xenophilius would only know that he had to 'help' the Trio when they came to him by giving them the clues about the Deathly Hallows, by also simultaneously betraying them to the Death Eaters.

Final task accomplished, he hurried back to Ginny and watched as she worked her pranking magic on the officer.

"And then my boyfriend just up and ran off after the bastard and told me to stay here, which is why I am so grateful that you stayed with me, officer," she was saying. He was just grateful she was playing the 'damsel-in-distress' rather than actually trying to flirt with him.

"It's all right ma'am," the police officer comforted her. "I radioed in about the mugger. I'll stay with you until your boyfriend gets back. And if you'd like, I can give you both a lift back to your home and make sure that you are fine."

"Thank you again," she sniffled, hugging herself, (and again he was grateful she didn't try to hug or caress the man in uniform). "I suppose I just needed to vent a little. It's nice just to have somebody there to listen and, oh! Harry, there you are!"

He'd removed the Invisibility Cloak and stepped around the corner, somewhat out of breath, or at least he made it seem that way. Not entirely clear on what specific story, if any, that she'd told the policeman, Harry decided to go with the most common one there is with the clues he'd overheard from earlier.

"I'm so sorry about that," he gasped, bending over to hold his knees for a bit, trying to 'catch his breath', before standing and gesturing at the uniformed officer. "You found a policeman! That's brilliant! Did you already tell him about, uh, the, uh…" he made sure to increase the noise of his breathing, despite not actually being out of breath, hoping she'd fill him in.

"About the man that stole my purse? That has our car keys and all our money in it?" she said, doing just as he'd hoped. He just nodded and regulated his breathing.

"Good news," he said after a bit so the police wouldn't be suspicious as he slowed his gasps and spoke more normally. "I got our stuff back, but I lost him about two streets over, in that direction. Where are we, by the way? I am completely turned around. Is Clemen's Parking garage around here, officer?"

"I thought…?" he started to ask.

"We pass by the garage on our way to our favorite restaurant," Ginny hastily put forth, wrapping herself in a tight embrace around the Time Mage. "He uses it as a landmark to know what direction we'd have to be walking in to get anywhere in this part of the city."

"Never heard of it," the officer stated, suspiciously looking the couple over.

It was Harry who was suspicious now, but that was only because he'd pulled the name from a quick 'scan' he'd done of the area while figuring out _exactly_ what needed to be done to fix things here. Clemens Parking garage was actually three blocks to the south of their current position, and any beat-cop should've recognized it immediately.

"Two-story garage, has two sub-levels, the broken neon sign on the west entrance, so it says 'RAGE' instead of Garage?" he said. "There's a Mario's Deli not five blocks west from there. They've got a brilliant Meatball sub, and their chips aren't half bad."

The police officer blinked and then shook his head, smiling. "That's called Clemen's? I thought it was Clempson's!"

"Well, thank you so much, officer, for helping my girl here. I'd best be getting her home, and you've got a mugger to catch. We'll be sure to stick to the well-lit public areas from now on, I promise. C'mon dear, let's get you home, eh?" he quickly tugged her along, keeping one arm securely around her shoulders.

The officer let them go and went back to his cruiser, already reporting in over his radio about the 'mugger on the loose'. Harry waited until they were around the corner from the police before pulling his cloak back out and covering them, hiding them from detection.

"What now?" she whispered as they quickly made their way back to the alleyway where they'd first appeared.

"Now, we shadow my past self and his friends and make sure that everything happens the way that it is _supposed_ to," he replied quietly. "And of course, intervene if something _else_ happens instead. Without being detected, of course."

"So, what is supposed to…?" she trailed off as they witnessed the Golden Trio Apparate in the middle of the street and barely avoid getting run over by a car. She was intrigued to note all three of them were in party clothes, the boys in the Wizarding equivalent of suit and tie, and Hermione in a slim thigh-length sleeveless red dress.

The time travelers were too far away to overhear what the Trio were saying, but it was clear from their demeanor that they were on the verge of a full-on panic. The younger Harry, in particular, looked like he was about to go on a rampage, and it was only his friends holding him back keeping him from doing so.

"What happened to them?" Ginny asked, even as they invisibly tailed them.

"They just escaped Bill and Fleur's wedding reception, which had just been attacked by Death Eaters," he dutifully answered. "The coupe to take over the Ministry just happened a little under an hour ago. We need to make sure that they get back to Grimmauld Place."

"Where?" she blurted out, confused. "And wait, Bill got married? To who?"

"..." Harry briefly considered explaining, but ultimately decided it wouldn't be worth it. "Doesn't matter right now. Besides, once we fix everything, you'll have your own memories of the wedding, and the reception."

"No, I'll actually cease to exist," she pointed out.

He sighed and shook his head.

"No, Ginny, you won't 'cease to exist'," he tried to explain. "You'll just be… your timeline will be rewritten to the proper events. Besides, I thought that was what you wanted? To make it so that all the bad things that happened to you… didn't?"

"That isn't how the _other_ you explained things," she said.

"Everything is going to work out, Ginny, I promise," he said, squeezing her hand.

"How do you know that?" she begged.

"Because I would not risk everything like this on a 'what if'! You are worth all of this and more. Every version of you is," he vowed.

"Every version?" she repeated. "Even the psycho-stalker-fangirl ones?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "Even them. Although I hear that they're actually pretty experienced, if you know what I mean? Hahaha!"

She slapped him, hard, on the arm, and screamed at him. "PRAT!"

Fortunately it was a busy street, so nobody reacted much to the yell coming from nowhere.

"My point is," he said once he'd stopped laughing. "Ginny, you _are_ the real Ginevra Molly Weasley. You are _my_ Ginny. It's just… your timeline is a little mixed up at the moment. Once we make sure the Trio get out of this mess OK, that should be fixed right up, and then we can get back to living happily ever after."

"There's no such thing," she remarked quietly.

Before he could further reply, things began to progress rather quickly. They had been watching the Trio from afar, across the street as a matter of fact, as they did their best to blend in with the crowd and ultimately hurried into the same Diner that Ginny recalled 'her' Harry going into and messing around with a bunch of random things, or at least it had looked that way to her. What had happened to keep Harry from answering Ginny's ridiculous claim was the squad of Snatchers apparate in from the shadows surrounding the diner and make their way in one by one, another of them going in through the back, which is actually one of the 'ripples' Harry had caused with the Pentaract. Another, unforeseen ripple, was that the squad also had an extra two men that stayed outside to 'guard' the place.

"Shit," Harry cursed, seeing _Time's_ reaction to the changes he'd _just_ made.

"What?" Ginny asked, alarmed.

"Those two," he pointed from beneath the Cloak, "They're not supposed to be there. If we don't do something, the Trio are not getting out of there alive. Or at least not whole."

"What can we do?" she wanted to know, practically ready to go charging across the street.

"We can't be seen and we can't take them out," he said. "Their deaths would cause even more ripples that will reflect back on us even worse than if they killed all three of them. We need to distract them or, or _something_!"

" _Confundus! Confundus_!" Ginny cast in rapid succession. In short order, the two Snatchers on guard looked around confused, saw each other and that they were 'in public', and suddenly were acting like they'd only just met up and were soon starting a pub-crawl. They walked away, crowing and cheering at each other enthusiastically and did indeed head straight for the nearest bar.

"That… works too," Harry remarked, a little stunned that he hadn't considered the possibility.

"We got lucky," she said back.

"Here's hoping our luck doesn't run out," he returned as the lights suddenly went out inside the diner and there were a few flashes of light inside. Fortunately, things were resolved fairly quickly. For the moment.

"What's happening?" Ginny asked, worried.

"Short version," the Time Mage answered, "I went in earlier and changed, adjusted, or repositioned every reflective surface in that place so that where _**I**_ was sitting, I'd be able to see the guy sneaking in from the back. I also stole and hid the manager's keys so they were sitting in a spot that one of them would be able to notice, and then Hermione would lock the doors and basically shut down the diner until they make their escape. Unfortunately, another of the ripples from the Pentaract spell, was that instead of Disapparating _from_ the diner, it is suggested that they need to stick around and gather more information. Hence why we need the police out and about, and the lights on the street all on. I've also prepared a little counterspell if Ron tries to use Dumbledore's Deluminator. Don't ask," he said at her confused and curious expression.

As predicted, the Trio exited the diner, locking it up behind them, and then proceeded to 'look around' as it were. In the _opposite_ direction!

"They're going the wrong way!" his redheaded companion exclaimed.

Harry held her back and nodded. "Remember? Police presence. Give them a few."

"Well what if they go _to_ the police?" Ginny pointed out.

Suddenly, a bright light was shone down the alley in the direction the Trio was running, causing them to come up short and try and hide in one of the nooks and crannies of the surrounding buildings. The bright light soon resolved itself into the side-lamp of the police cruiser as the lights and siren were turned on all at once, and at full volume. The lights and siren were turned off within another thirty or so seconds, but by that point, the Trio had already been scared into heading back down the well-lit alleyway with less foot traffic.

"OK, how did you manage _that_?" Ginny asked, in awe as she witnessed the Trio go exactly where they were supposed to.

"Flipped all the switches and dials accordingly," he answered. "So when he turned the car on, everything would come on all at once. Also, some time-delayed sticking charms applied in key places kept it going long enough for them to get spooked, yet not draw the wrong kind of attention. I'm going to… check things one last time here. Just to be safe."

"I don't think you have to," she pointed down the alley, where the two confunded Snatchers appeared from the other end of the street. Unfortunately, they were closer to the Trio than the time travelers were. "Did you plan for this?"

"Why do you think I had you scream?" he reminded her. "Without the lights on like they are, the Trio never would've seen them coming. Now let's just hope Hermione is still as cautious as ever…"

As it so happened, he was half right. He didn't account for his younger self being quite so… trigger happy, as the 17-year-old Harry Potter attacked first and had the two Snatchers on the defensive and very quickly stunned and restrained before they even knew what had happened. Moments after the Dark Wizards were dealt with, Hermione talked her two friends into hiding in the one place that they could be sure nobody would think of to look for them; Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, the former Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, still under Fidelius Wards.

The Trio disapparated away, and instantly after that, a magic circle appeared around the two time travelers.

"Harry?!" Ginny called out, scared. "What's going on?"

"The Pentaract is shifting!" he answered, hanging onto her tight.

The world seemed to turn itself inside and out, the wind picking up and throwing everything not secured down up and around. Even gravity lost its hold on them for a few seconds, and then moments later, the whole universe changed.

-END Phase Three-


	4. Phase 4

\- Phase Four -

[ _August 11, 1999_ ]

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

"Ugh. That was almost as bad as the first time I did that," Harry groaned, struggling to his feet. In doing so, he noticed that he was no longer in London, but rather laying on the grass of his front lawn in front of his home, Potter's Mill. Incidentally, he recognized it as the very same location where he'd first cast the Penteract spell.

Once on his feet, he pulled his Time-Magic compatible wand and cast a few temporal diagnostic spells. He was… well, good news, he was 'out' of the Penteract spell's influence. Bad news, the Penteract spell still had yet to be fully resolved. He would have expected his future self to have already taken care of… oh. Looking around, he realized that, given the date and time, there should have been a party going on all around him, or at the very least not too far away in the back yard. Instead, only silence.

Wait, where was Ginny?

"Ginny?!" he called out.

"I'm here," her voice called out behind him.

He spun around, and breathed a tremendous sigh of relief at seeing _his wife_ standing there. They ran up to one another and embraced, just staying locked in one another's arms until they finally felt safe enough to let go. Then they started to kiss, and only stopped when they felt they were about to damn their inhibitions. When they finally separated, more or less, she still had both arms around his chest while he had one on her shoulders, they breathed another sigh and started to look about.

"So… what happened?" she asked her husband. "Did it work?"

"I'm… not sure," he answered honestly. "I, or rather we, fixed the timeline, and the Pentaract should have resolved in our favor but," he gestured at their surroundings, "Your birthday party is supposed to be going on right now. This is the same day and time that I've visited half a dozen times now. I don't understand what I did wrong. Are you… Are you the Ginny that went with me, or the one that went with my future self?"

"The one that went with you," she confirmed. "And… my birthday is tomorrow, Harry. Are you saying that it's… tomorrow?"

He blinked, and then stepped away so he could more accurately check the 'time'. The results were surprising, but somehow he was not surprised. He groaned, rubbing his face.

"What?" she asked, concerned, touching his arms. "What is it, Harry?"

"We have to do it from the other side now," he giggled, the kind of giggle one makes when stressed beyond their capacity.

"What?" she repeated herself, utterly confused.

"We have to close the Pentaract and heal the damage to time," he explained, running his fingers through his jet-black hair. "But to do that, what I was counting on my future self to do, we have to essentially… start the ball rolling so the Pentaract is created, and then resolved, so that the sequence of events remain intact. If it doesn't…" he gestured around at their quiet yard.

"How does me not having a big birthday party translate into almost breaking and then fixing all of space and time?" the redhead yelled at him, hands on her hips.

"How does me becoming a Time Mage mean that you have to be killed on your birthday?" he said back, almost whimpering.

"What?" she said again, stunned.

"That is what started all of this," he explained. "On your birthday, _today_ , you were kidnapped by some masked figure, dragging you through a time portal. On the other side, I saw you killed, and eventually I managed to open up a portal that would take me back. We had your funeral less than a week later. I spent all of my time and energy researching a way of making sure that I could save you. I had time magic, I could change history. Me casting the Pentaract spell… it's what started all of this!" he cried out in despair, falling to the ground, head in his hands.

"If… oh god!" he wailed suddenly, tears streaming from his eyes. "I… I have to kill you! To preserve the timeline… to keep you from being that scared, hurt, hunted girl… I have to kill my wife?!"

She slapped him.

"Try again," she ordered.

"What?" now he was saying it.

"If that were really the case, we'd just be back at the party, or that shack I was just in, or even worse, time itself would start breaking down! Is that happening?" she pointed out.

"Well," he considered and rechecked using several different spells to confirm before answering, "No. But… the Pentaract still hasn't fully resolved. Not to mention, time has actually… stopped moving. I… didn't notice it before, but, we're currently in the exact same _second_ of time from when I first checked things, from when we first arrived."

"But the wind is blowing, the trees and grass are moving, the sun is shining, and all of that," Ginny argued. "Time can't be frozen if all that is still going on, can it?"

Harry shook his head and got back to his feet, wiping his face absentmindedly as he did so. "Time isn't _frozen_ ," he stressed, "It's just stopped moving. Neither going forward, nor backward. It's like… holding your breath and keeping as still as possible, as opposed to being still because you're under a Petrificus Totalus or the like. Time is, essentially, holding its breath. I… don't understand how this is possible, or why this is happening!"

"Harry, calm down," she grabbed him by the neck and made him look into her eyes. "You'll figure it out. How many times have you been at a total loss, almost sure of failure, and then in the heat of the moment, you figure it out and then everything works out. Just stay calm, work the problem. Same as when it was just you and Ron and Hermione."

He nodded and took a breath to relax himself, closing his eyes.

His eyes snapped open.

"This… this is it," he said in awe. "This, _this_ is the moment where the decision is made, and… until I, until _we_ make the decision, one way or another, time won't move forward."

"Harry," she smiled at him, still holding him by the neck, "I'm glad you figured it out, whatever it is, but maybe you could explain it for me? Please?"

"Right, sorry," he grinned sheepishly, taking her hands in his while they were still around the back of his neck. Then he pulled away and they started walking toward their home. Or rather, towards Potters Mill.

"You remember the explanation about how the Pentaract works, right?" he confirmed.

She nodded, then shrugged. "Kind of. I recall the explanation, but I don't think I ever really understood it. Certainly not the way _you_ understand it."

"That's fine, and I'll try and work on that, I promise," he said as they reached their front porch, and the large window there, letting them see into their living room. "I'll start with the basics, because you need to understand what is happening here, Ginny. Time is an Aspect of Existence. Please note the capital letters I used there. I'm still wrapping my head around it, in some ways, but Existence is… _EVERYTHING_!" He actually shouted and threw his hands out wide.

"There are elements, _Aspects_ , which are required for Existence to remain stable," he went on, sitting her down on one end of the bench they had there beneath the window on their front porch, while he sat himself on the other end. "Existence could, for lack of a better term, exist without these Aspects, but it would be rather chaotic and dull at the same time. You've heard of somebody just 'existing'? Well, same sort of thing. The Aspects make Existence worth living, and also bring about stability so that it doesn't just implode or otherwise self-destruct. The most well-known and acknowledged Aspects are; Death, Life, Love, Magic, and Time. According to this book," he held out the object that had begun his journey into becoming a Time Mage, "Death was actually the first Aspect, and came into being at the same time Existence did. Time began only after Life started, and everything else to follow. Time, is not just the passing of moments, of a sequence of events that happen one after the next after the next and the next and so on into eternity. Time is the Aspect that holds it all together. The glue between the pages," he ran his finger along the spine of the book, "The gravity between objects. Time is alive and very much self-aware, but as with everything else in Existence, it is constantly changing, growing, learning, evolving some might say."

He paused to take a breath and to let the redhead across from him process it a bit.

"Everything has a beginning," he went on after a brief silence. "Even the Aspects, despite the incongruity and illogic of it, where they _had_ to exist _before_ they came into existence. In order for Life to begin and for living things to be born and grow, Time had to exist for time to pass, but Time didn't exist until _after_ Life had already found its way. Likewise, how could Death exist before there was Life to die? It all mish-mashes its way through Existence. I know it's hard, but do you understand?"

"Not really," Ginny shook her head. "But, it sounds like you're talking about all of reality, Existence? Is just one giant paradox."

"That's a good way of putting it," he acknowledged. "Remember the Pentaract? Well, let me put it like this. Existence is pretty much infinite. So, as impossible as it is, try and imagine an _infinite-sided_ version, where there are as many sides as there are seconds in eternity, or atoms throughout all of Existence."

She shook her head vehemently. "What does this have to do with why Time is, as you said, holding its breath? What did you figure out? I get it, the whole situation is a paradox of massive proportions. Moving on!"

Harry laughed and nodded his head.

"On my eighteenth birthday," he said, holding up the book, "I was sent this. I glanced at it; a book about Time Magic, and then I put it away as we had more important things going on, most immediately, our wedding, and then your birthday party. I was going to come back to it, study up on it, learn more if I could, but only casually, you understand? That was my plan, at least."

He sighed and leaned back on the bench, facing out toward their yard. "Then, like I told you, you were kidnapped from the party, killed in front of my eyes, and I spent all of my time learning and mastering Time Magic, to the point that I could cast a spell that would let me save you. Then, after I came back to the party, to save you, I met a future version of myself. He explained that your death was the only way that I would learn Time Magic _fast enough_. That I would be motivated, dedicated enough to learning as quickly as I possibly could. Then he said something to me."

"What? What did he say?" Ginny asked.

"That this was all set in motion by the 'eldest' me, the one that makes the decision to follow _this_ path in becoming a Time Mage," Harry answered. "It has been simmering away in the back of my mind all this time now. A decision, one decision that I made, or will make, sets off a chain of events that goes as far _back_ in time as it does in going forward. And," he looked around at the still and quiet world around them.

Though the wind was blowing, they both simultaneously realized, it was muted, though the trees were swaying and the grass waving, the sounds were somehow diminished from how it normally might have. Though they were a wizard and witch living off the beaten path, they weren't _that_ far from muggle civilization. There was a highway not too far off, and at all times both day and night they could often hear the sounds of traffic. Not right now, though.

"And," he finished speaking, "this is that moment the decision gets made. And until it _is_ made, one way or the other, Time won't know which way to go. If I save you, if I make it so you never get kidnapped and killed… then I don't push myself to become a Time Mage. But then, I wouldn't need to save you in the first place if that becomes the case. The problem is… I don't know _why_ I would ever want to fake your death, if that is what this turns out to be. I don't understand why this all happened in the first place!"

Ginny nodded. She was, finally, starting to understand.

"So, how do we find out?"

"What?!"

She smiled and scooted closer. "How can we find out which decision is the right one? How can we find out why _killing me_ , fake or not, is even an option in the first place? You made, what did you call it? A Time Clone, or something, right? Where you basically time-travel some future version of yourself to the present, but he's both real and not real because his timeline, or whatever, isn't ever going to happen? Can't we do that, only instead of bringing the clone to the present… send us to whatever future?"

Harry opened his mouth, and then left it hanging open as his eyes started racing all over the place as his brain overclocked itself.

Upon successful reboot, he snapped his jaw closed, wincing slightly at the brief pain, and finally answered the posed question. "Yes, we can do that actually. It won't even affect things negatively, and we can easily come back and do it either way. Although… past a year, it becomes exceedingly difficult to do so without resounding consequences. That exponentially increases with each passing year, so… I can give us until the next Christmas, to be sure about it. But if I do wait that long, even by only four months over, we can only make this choice once."

"So what you're saying," Ginny interpreted, "is that we have a year and a half to figure out what it is about our lives here that made me being murdered and you becoming a hermit the better option? And that if we come back and decide to go ahead and kill me anyway, we can't change our minds and go back to the first way?"

"Yes, essentially," he confirmed.

"And if we only live through the next year, down to the exact day, we could try out both choices as many times as we want?"

He just nodded his head.

"Then why not do both?" she scoffed. "Live out one year, doing one choice, come back and do the other for one year, and if we haven't made a decision by then, well, then we'll do the year and a half thing and make our final choice from that. Personally, I'm kind of inclined to believe that we'd choose to stay right where we are, but given that we've actually got a choice in the matter, best to make it when fully informed, right?"

"So," she got to her feet suddenly, "How does this work? I don't mean time magic, I mean this thing we're going to be doing? Living the next year and then coming back to this moment?"

"Well," he said, joining her, "From my perspective, it kind of plays out like a video game, only where I actually get to take part. Since I haven't warded you or performed the rituals for you that would allow you to retain multiple timelines…" he trailed off at her confused look, "... So you could keep your memories without getting confused. I'm not sure how it will be for you. You may just be yourself, but with a subconscious reminder that your next birthday is going to be a very important day. We may have to correct that if it turns out you can't remember future events without the protection."

"What might it mean if I could?" she wanted to know.

Shrugging, while hiding a smile, Harry replied, "Well, considering that you're a witch, it _might_ mean that you have a talent for Time Magic, same as me. We won't know until after."

He raised his wand and began casting the spell.

[ _August 11, 2000_ ]

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

So… now they knew.

"None of this happened in the other timeline?" Ginny asked, subdued as they witnessed the destruction of their home. It was burning, along with all of their possessions, having been the result of a dark magic attack by _Fiendfyre_. Harry's fellow Aurors were doing what they could to contain the blaze. The arsonist, Greg Goyle, had gotten himself drunk, reminiscing about his old friend, Vincent Crabbe, who'd gone and gotten himself killed by his own Fiendfyre two years past now.

"No," Harry shook his head, holding his distraught wife close, as much for health as comfort given she was dressed only in her nightgown and the sun hadn't even risen yet. "Apparently, according to his confession, he was only brave enough to do this because he knew I'd be busy elsewhere tonight, whereas in the… other timeline, I'd become a hermit, never leaving the house."

"Sir!" a junior Auror ran up to them. "It's confirmed, sir. Goyle didn't start here. He's been hitting houses all over the place. He, uh, he actually started with Auror Weasley's and Mrs. Granger-Weasley's home, before hitting the Burrow and a number of other enclaves in the area. I hate to pry you away, sir, but they need all hands on deck."

"Understood," Harry snapped. "I'll report in momentarily. That'll be all."

Gulping, the junior Auror scurried away.

Harry stopped time.

"We've actually got another few hours before we hit the limit of the spell, but I think we've already learned everything that we need to, don't you?" he commented to the woman in his arms.

"I'll say," the redhead grumbled, pulling out her wand and conjuring some warmer clothes directly onto her body. "Burning the house down is just the decorations on the cake. Ron cheating on Hermione with _three_ different women! Neville being forced to quit the Auror force to become a full-time Lord, something that he hates! _Seven_ stalkers trying to hex or otherwise curse me so they could try their hand at you! Luna disappearing, Hermione quitting her job because she was pregnant with child number one, Dad moving out of the Burrow because Mum is beside herself with no one else to take care of, and then there's all the crap with Rita Skeeter and the rest of the press!"

"And the fact that I won't know as much about Time Magic in this timeline, limits what I can do to either prevent or change any of that," he added.

"But… _faking my death_?!" she exclaimed, pacing back and forth. "There has to be some _other_ motivation or trick that we could pull off to get you to learn almost as quickly?"

"Ginny…" He sighed, then had an idea. "OK, let's go back, and I'll show you what happened during that year after you died."

"How?" she questioned. "I'm dead, I can't live through it, like I did this past year."

"I never thought I'd get a chance to use this spell so soon," Harry said as he began casting with his metallic black wand. "It's called the _Observer spell_. Basically, it is like being an invisible ghost, able to see, hear, and observe everything, but not interact at all. So you can see just _how much_ I actually dedicated to learning time magic after you died. And, something to keep in mind," he added as the portal opened before them, "I cast the Penteract spell _the moment_ that I was sure I _could_ cast it and succeed. If it had only taken me a month, a week, or even a day to be able to cast it, that is how long I would have waited and not an hour more. Ginny," he gave her a sorrowful look right before they crossed the threshold, "I waited ten years."

"Wait, what?!" she stopped him and pulled him back.

"I created a time loop," he hurriedly explained. "One of the early spells in the books. Took me a week and a half to be able to cast that much, and then I relived the same seven days over and over again… five hundred and twenty nine times. Once I was sure I knew enough, I ended the time loop, spent a day casting every ritual and ward and protection that I would need on myself, and then I cast _the_ spell. You need to see me during that month, Ginny. Otherwise… you can't understand."

"... All right," she agreed, and then they both stepped through the portal.

[ _August 11, 1999_ ]

 _Potter's Mill_

 _Ottery St. Mary, Devon_

 _England_

"..." Ginny was at a loss for words.

They were back at the moment where Time held its breath, the Penteract on the cusp of resolving, one way or the other. They'd just gotten back from the 'year out' timeline where she dies and Harry comes 'back' after 'failing' to save her in using the Penteract. He quit his job with the Ministry, instead turning into some kind of silent investor, financially supporting a number of 'new' businesses opening up throughout the Wizarding World, and not just in Diagon Alley. When people tried to send him mail or comfort him, or _stalk_ him, they found his home at Potter's Mill abandoned and slowly falling into disrepair, though he had not sold the property. If a face-to-face meeting was required, he met the party somewhere else, somewhere public, and nobody could seem to track him or find out where he slept or anything like that, though he was obviously still involved with the hidden world of wizards… it was not to the degree that he'd been had Ginny stayed alive.

As for all the other tragedies that had befell them and their friends in the other timeline, well… they _seemed_ to either miraculously reverse themselves, get prevented due to unforeseen events, or still happen, just without the same impact that it might have, had Harry Potter's wife still been alive. Too concerned with his best friend's grief, not to mention his own of having lost _another_ sibling, Ron couldn't be bothered to cheat on his wife. Needing further distraction from her own grief, the very pregnant Hermione dared not quit her job, in fact she was still hard at work and had to be dragged away from her desk and paperwork when she went into labour. Neville still left the Auror force, but because he'd quit to become a professional Herbalist. He was still acknowledged as Lord Longbottom, but refused to be cowed into the position after the loss of his date to the Yule Ball and a close friend at the same time. Luna did not 'disappear', so much as she seemed to be as difficult to pin down as Harry himself, in fact the two often 'appeared' at various appointments in the company of each other.

As for Ginny herself, well the Observer spell seemed to have limits and without knowing _where_ they put the young woman after faking her death, there was no way to see what was going on in her life, and apparently the Time Mage didn't _disapparate_ to her location, so much as he moved through space and time, which the Observer Spell could not track.

In seeing both consequences to the decision to be made here, she should have felt more certain than ever about which way to go. In the short term, it was obvious which way to go, to ensure the most people's happiness. And while they'd only seen the 'final iteration' of that week-long time loop Harry had put himself through that first month of the year, she'd seen enough to know that he essentially had dedicated _ALL_ of his time to mastering time magic. He'd only eaten when his energy levels had failed, he'd only slept when he could no longer keep his eyes open, and he kept up his reading and his studying while doing anything else. For the equivalent of ten years.

There was no way that she could've gotten her Harry to focus _that much_ on mastering the esoteric magic, even if she could retain her memories of the various timelines. Even if they didn't 'kill' her, but instead 'kidnapped' her or even kidnapped _him_ to _make_ him study and practice… he'd focus on finding her, or on escaping. They'd actually spent most of that 'year' Observing, talking out and brainstorming various other possibilities besides faking her death. It all came back to how long it would take him to learn everything that he needed to learn. Not even faking _HIS_ death would work, as they found out the hard way when 'testing out' that particular timeline.

Apparently Ginny would be killed for real right about the time the Penteract spell would've been cast. By Goyle, with the Fiendfyre spell again. Malfoy would then emerge as the new Minister and secret Dark Lord before the year was out.

Hence why Harry couldn't 'disappear' entirely after the 'death' of his wife. His very presence deterred most all dark wizards and kept them in line and the Wizarding World's society _mostly_ stable.

"So," she finally spoke.

"So," he repeated, nodding.

"Kind of obvious what we have to do then, huh?" she remarked.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Could still try and see what is two years out for when we don't kill you. And… time travel can be a versatile tool. Once I know enough, could come back and make everything better… maybe," he shrugged again.

"Except, in that timeline, by the point you'd know enough, it would be history set in stone, rather than a simple left or right choice that you can hop back a few minutes or a day to choose the other one," she argued back, actually using one of the same arguments he'd used against her when she'd first suggested something similar.

"We didn't even get to see what our personal lives are like," he tried again. "All we saw was what our friends and family deal with. And the rest of the world too, I guess. But my point is that we might end up fighting all the time, with you being in seclusion or whatever ends up going on. And… what about when we have kids? You _know_ that you're going to want your Mum to be there for that!"

"..." Ginny silently acknowledged the point, then shook her head. "We… we will fake my death. And then, I don't know, maybe after a year, or more, we can silently approach my family. Mum and Dad at least. Let them know what we did. Set up some kind of, I don't know, Time Magic Fidelus Charm, so they won't be in danger and can visit."

"It would still just be the Fidelus Charm," he pointed out, before continuing. "And we talked that over. We'd have to make the Secret-Keeper either Hermione, or Luna, and Hermione would definitely tell Ron, who would then get her to tell everybody else."

"So we make Luna the Secret-Keeper," said Ginny.

"One word, preceded by 'the'," Harry said back. "The Quibbler."

She winced and acknowledged the point. An _actual_ conspiracy? Involving a branch of magic nobody would admit existed? Not to mention the Man Who Vanquished, or whatever they were calling her husband these days? The quirky blonde wouldn't be able to help herself.

"We'll… talk about _that_ later," Ginny finally decided. "So, how do we do this? I mean, the decision is made, right? We're going to fake my death and do all the time-travelling necessary for that, right? What's next?"

"Oh, I don't know, making actual plans for what to do _after_ you're dead and buried?" Harry said. "We've got as much, pardon the expression, time as we need to hammer out all the details, instead of doing it on the fly here, Ginny. As far as the Penteract," he shrugged. "It should be resolved the moment I open a portal to the appropriate timeline. Once that is done, we just play our parts and then…" he sighed, "We move on from there."

"Oh yeah," she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry, it's just this place is starting to creep me out just a little bit. Especially since it is getting, y'know, darker."

Harry grimaced. "OK, so I might have exaggerated when I said that we have a lot of time. I mean, how long can anyone hold their breath for, let alone an Aspect, right? Ha ha ha."

"Are we," she gulped, looking up at the twilight sky, "in any danger?"

"How about we deal with the situation and make the big decisions now, worrying about the small stuff later? The moment I take us back to actually set everything up and start the sequence of events, everything will be fine and the Penteract will resolve, no problem," he assured her. "For now, where do you want to live? Because, Ginny, after this, we can't live anywhere in England, Scotland, and probably not even Ireland. I'm hesitant about France, but it is a pretty damn big country, so avoiding those that know us shouldn't be that difficult. Of course, that would be true of just about anywhere in Europe, so…"

"Harry," she interrupted him. "We're moving to America."

"Uhh, OK?" he was confused by the rapid decision. "Mind if I ask why?"

"Probably because it is the only other country, with magic, where the primary language is English," she pointed out. "Australia's nice and all, but we both know that it is primarily a Magical Creature Preserve, and in order to live there, we'd both have to be experts in taking care of at least one breed, or more, of magical creature."

"Ah, yeah, there is that," he shrugged. "Hadn't really thought the language barrier as an issue really, since it would take almost no time at all, so to speak, to learn a new one. OK, so where in America? And… are we serious about letting people know after-the-fact?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Somewhere in the middle, I guess. Let's just start with New York and decide after we get there. As far as letting people know… unless there is some kind of limitation, or plan that you have in mind, can't we decide that later?"

"Er, yes, but that all depends on your method of dying," Harry said reluctantly, rubbing the back of his neck, and not quite meeting her gaze for the moment.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, confused.

"Well, there is Avada Kervada dead, and there's broken neck or stabbed dead," he pointed out. "If we tell people you died from the first, they'll think I somehow transferred my immunity to the Unforgivables to you and that would lead to… _problems_. If it is physical trauma, then we can just say I'm a necromancer or something instead of a Time Mage. Either way, we have to provide a legitimate excuse for them to acknowledge that you aren't actually dead. Um, and that I didn't just make a copy of you, or something else crazy like that."

"Then yes, we're going to tell them at some point, just… not within the first year or so, all right? Give us time to settle into our new life. Speaking of, what am I going to do for work?" she asked.

"Well I'm not about to say that you can't or shouldn't," he remarked. "But even if we change your appearance, it would be too dangerous for you to try and get on the Holyhead Harpies again, or try and do _anything_ on the Professional Quidditch Circuit for that matter. If you want to work as a muggle, there will be hundreds of opportunities to be on the lookout for. If you want to work as a witch…" he hissed, clenching his teeth slightly. "I'll need to set up some kind of fake identity, probably something through the American schools or maybe even let you relive a whole other life there and something. That can be one of the minor details, for now."

"Great," Ginny nodded. "As long as it isn't working for the ministry or government like Dad, or staying at home like Mom, I'll love it. Maybe I'll join up with the local Aurors or something when we get to wherever we're going."

"Sure, if you don't mind me tagging along or time travelling so I'm always in the area whenever you're on patrol," he semi-joked back.

"Ugh, you're too overprotective," she scoffed, but smiled.

"Should we discuss funeral arrangements?" he brought up the next topic.

Several subjective "hours" later, with the sky remaining the brighter side of twilight, they'd hammered out the final details of everything they'd want or need to do _after_ Ginny was "dead". Now it was time to discuss _how_ they were killing her in the first place.

"Shouldn't _you_ be telling _me_ , how I'm going to be killed?" Ginny pointed out.

"It wouldn't make a difference," he shrugged at her. "Whatever we decide is what I'll remember. If I don't say anything. And if I try and lie to you or spare your feelings, or even describe everything in detail, whatever our _final_ decision is, will be what I remember. This isn't a loop, or a paradox, Ginny. It's literally history being made. Now. How do you want to die? I would not recommend the Avada Kedavra. For one thing, it _hurts_! And for another… see previous statements about how you haven't undergone the rituals that I have that would guarantee your safety."

"What is the least painful way to die?" she asked.

"Um… in your sleep, of old age, while surrounded by great-great-grandchildren and all their numerous parents?" he shrugged.

"Funny," she rolled her eyes at him.

"While having sex?"

She didn't bother dignifying that with a response.

"OK, I give up!" Harry held up his hands in surrender.

"I'm being serious!" she shouted at him. "Even if it won't be happening to _me_ -me, it'll still be happening to me, so whatever it is, I don't want it to hurt!"

"And whatever I tell you that is least painful, you'll pick, which comes right back around to me changing my own memories," he pointed out.

"Are you being this difficult on purpose?!"

"I'm not being difficult," he argued back. "I'm being cautious. And I really don't want it hanging over our heads that I think about ways of killing you."

She opened her mouth to continue arguing, but what he'd said struck a chord in her, and her jaw snapped shut before any words could form. She really didn't know what to say to all that. Besides, he was right. Knowing that neither of them would do it, nor even try it, was secondary to knowing that they _were_ thinking about killing one another.

"Y'know what, let's think about this another way," she declared. "How can we prank the younger you? What… pranks or other stuff that my brothers sell at their joke shop could we use to make the younger you _think_ that I've been killed, and then just switch out 'me' for whatever faked time-clone-corpse we'll be replacing me with?"

Harry opened his mouth to protest that he wouldn't be fooled _that_ easily, when suddenly his own jaw snapped shut as his eyes widened in realization. Then he blushed, embarrassed enough to rival her natural hair color as he admitted, "I saw your throat get cut open. And… Ron _had_ mentioned a bunch of new merchandise that they were getting at the shop when we spoke at the party. We can just make the purchase _after_ the funeral and then come back with whatever is needed. Probably hit up a couple of costume shops and the like over in London while we're at it, further confuse the issue."

"All right," she nodded. "So, that's _that_ out of the way. Now, what all do we have to do to pull it off? Plan on hitting your younger self with a Confundus charm while we're at it, just to be sure."

"Panic and horror will definitely keep him from noticing it right away," he agreed, nodding.

"As for everything we have to do," he said, running his fingers through his hair as the scope of it briefly overwhelmed him, "well, it is a lot. And, try not to laugh, but I've had some time to think it through, and I believe I have figured out what most of it is. It is just going to depend on our, uh, heh, timing…"

Rolling her eyes at her husband of (depending upon your point of view), one year, or maybe almost five, given how many times they'd lived through alternate timelines by this point. She told him plainly, "Just lay it out like a Quidditch strategy. I'll worry about figuring out whatever strange Time Magic terms you use. You just worry about telling me the right things to do or say or whatever. Like when we were fixing the Penta-thingie."

"Pentaract," he automatically corrected.

"Whatever!" she snapped. "Just lay it out already!"

And so he did. The entire sequence of events as he experienced them, one after the next. He also outlined what he had deduced as to what needed to happen, on their end, to make it all happen.

"All right," she nodded her head. "Let me just, go through this, make sure that I've got it, all right?" He nodded in reply. "For… whatever reason, however many timelines ago it was, I was late to my own birthday party, so this all started as a way to get me to the party earlier, so I could enjoy it. Regardless, while the 'me' from _after_ the party is enjoying said party, the me coming home from work drives up to see the party in full swing and joins it, acting all surprised and everything, while the me that had been at the party slips away. When that happens, we'll open up a time portal and I'll jump through and grab the other me, dragging her away, because we already know that you won't be able to do it. We'll get tackled by the younger you, while the 'youngest' you at the Party goes through a completely different portal that you'll have already set up. Then we go about convincing the younger me about the situation, while the younger you tries and rescues her. Then you'll portal me and my time clone to wherever the 'youngest' you is and I'll slit her throat with the prank knife and then get out of there. After _that_ , I'll join up with you in the basement of our house to sit through that explanation on the Penteract all over again, and then… that's it? Everything is fixed? We go home, or move on or whatever?"

"That is the basic outline of events, yes," Harry confirmed.

"... My head hurts, is that normal?" Ginny asked, rubbing her temples.

"Like a hangover, or just stress?" he asked.

"Well, the lights aren't bright enough to hurt my eyes, and the sounds are already muted, but yeah, kind of like a hangover," she answered.

"Then yeah, it's normal," he shrugged. "It's why most people profess that they need to be drunk to discuss time travel in the practical. Because then they can't tell the difference between the hangover and the headache they get from talking about time travel."

"Anyway I can get pissed before we do this, then?" she whined, rubbing the bridge of her nose and forehead now.

"Well, we probably _should_ find a place to live and set everything up in America _before_ we have to actually fake your death and go into hiding and all that," said Harry. "Don't see why we can't do all that and have a few drinks along the way before coming back…"

"What about Time holding its breath and all that?" she pointed out.

"Decision's made," Harry shook his head. "We're never coming back to this 'moment' after we leave it, and we've only stayed this long to map out our plans. After we get everything set up, we'll just go ahead and enact the plan to 'prank' the younger me. And then after that, well," Harry shrugged, and drew her into his embrace, "Well, then we live our lives. A Time Mage and his wife."

"Yeah," she said, poking him in the chest. "Don't think for even a second, Mister, that I'm not getting you to teach me everything you can about time magic. I'm not about to let you go gallivanting throughout all of History without me along for the ride!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Harry smiled and kissed her head.

"Are we doing this, or what?" Ginny finally asked after they'd been standing there, hugging, for nearly a minute.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Let's do this."

And just like that, they were gone and the Moment had passed. Finally.

\- END Phase Four -


End file.
